


Insomnia

by Imagine_Kayla



Series: The Noctivagant Series [6]
Category: Alien vs Predator (2004), Aliens vs Predators Series - Various Authors, Predators (2010)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Explicit Language, F/M, Injury Recovery, Interspecies Romance, Light Angst, Major Character Injury, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Science Fiction, Sequel, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-07 14:57:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 46,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21459931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imagine_Kayla/pseuds/Imagine_Kayla
Summary: It has been some time since Nichole and Wolf escaped Gunnison, Colorado, and the menace of the xenomorph outbreak. Her recovery has gone well and she's been adjusting to her new life as best as she can. Their first big hunt together goes awry when hardened criminals show up and claim Wolf as their next prey, leaving Nichole to fight for both of their lives.
Relationships: Wolf/OC - Relationship
Series: The Noctivagant Series [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/488387
Comments: 32
Kudos: 138





	1. Preface: Drain

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> I know you guys must be confused but I decided to delete all the chapters and start over. It's undergoing a ton of changes so I figured it was just worth it to delete everything and start from scratch so there wouldn't be any timeline mess-ups. I'm going to be rearranging a ton of scenes and deleted a few others.
> 
> Hopefully, chapters come quickly. I don't have much else going on since I'm at a standstill with my original fiction lmao. I'm working on something special for my patrons, so if you wanna see what that is all about you'll have to subscribe or just stay tuned!
> 
> Anyway, here's the rewrite of the preface. Chapter one will be up in a day or two.
> 
> ~ Crayola

My whole body trembled from head to toe. Exhausted, I tried to stand but only stumbled and collapsed to my hands and knees again, breathless and gasping. Adrenaline coursed through my veins, hot and heavy, but it was starting to filter out, leaving me shaking like a leaf.

Creature walked over, still on-edge as well, and watched the corpse with suspicion. I blocked it out and stared at the dirt beneath me.

Somehow, I had won.

Blood coated my arms and stained my fingertips, bright green against my tan skin. I sat back, my throat tight, and forced myself to swallow my saliva. Drops of the blood dripped to the ground and slid down my elbows, shaken loose from my trembling.

And I couldn't stop staring.

Finally, though I still could not stand, I reached over and grabbed the broad yellow leaf of a nearby plant and used it to wipe my hands clean. When they barely managed to smear off, I rubbed dirt all over my arms, using it to absorb the blood until, instead of my opponent's life, it was just mud clinging to my arm.

The corpse nearby was a dark shadow in my peripheral vision, weighing down on me as I tried to come to terms with the events that led to my victory. The killing blows I'd delivered in a last-ditch attempt to just survive the encounter and him . . . throwing himself at me in order to die with some dignity even as he bled out like a stuck pig.

As he summoned the last of his strength to go out with a bang because of my dirty street fighting.

_"Do whatever you can to live."_

Those had been Wolf's parting words to me even as we were being wrenched apart by these criminals.

I clenched my eyes shut against the guilt and focused on attuning to my body—figuring out what was wrong and what I could fix. I couldn't fix this. I couldn't fix him. I wouldn't want to even I could. I had lived, he had not, and that was what I had to understand.

I'd wrenched victory from the claws of defeat, though it still tasted bittersweet.

Everything ached. My head, my body, my limbs, my heart.

Taking a breath, I managed to shift to my knees with my hands on my lap, smearing green-tinged mud all over my thighs.

"It is fine," I said to Creature. "He has no vital signs."

The insectoid alien gave the body one last look, then came to my side. The pool of blood beneath the body was slowly spreading all over, soaking the dirt. It wasn't flowing as heavily has it had been before, now that there was no more heartbeat to circulate it.

He leaned down so he could look at me through those strange, multi-faceted, red eyes of his and he canted his head to the side. He offered me a claw. I hesitated, still trying to catch my breath.

"Are you badly injured?" I asked, indicating to the deep gouges in his exoskeleton.

Creature clicked his pincers and examined himself.

While he did that, I shifted my attention to the prone corpse, face down in the dirt, only feet away from us. I sucked in a sterile breath of air through my mask and closed my eyes again. I couldn't shake the feeling that I had been cheating, but I'd had no other choice.

These people were criminals. The underbelly of society. They weren't here to fight me fairly and Wolf had given me permission to win.

_"Do whatever you can to live."_

We weren't on a hunt anymore. I was fighting for my life and his, and the honor code didn't apply to badbloods because they would not abide. We were the prey, so we were allowed to struggle with all our hearts. And if there was one thing I was good at, it was struggling with everything I was just to keep going.

Eventually, Creature finished checking his injuries and answered. "Me am well."

Once more, he extended his claw to me, and this time I took it. He helped me to my feet. I steadied myself, and, slowly but surely, the shaking was starting to wear off.

"Then . . . Let's go find Wolf."


	2. Waves of Doubt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> Here's the new chapter one... Again...
> 
> I didn't ask my beta reader to go over this cuz my god she's looked over so many of these chapters and I just feel SO BAD so if some things are a little off, just let me know. I really want to know what you guys think of this chapter, as I still feel like the tone is a little off...like, it's not consistent? I don't know. It took me so long to get it out because I just couldn't make it feel right.
> 
> So, feedback is appreciated! :D
> 
> Special shoutout to my patrons; Autumn, Anna, Danielle, Dark, Erin, Atira, Andrew, Lily, Kendra, Narttu, and Tonya! You guys rock!
> 
> ~ Kayla

The big insectoid alien across the table from me stared with unblinking, segmented eyes. I stared right back, waiting.

"Ready?" I asked him after a heartbeat.

His antennae twitched—yes, he was ready.

I took a breath. "_Okay_ . . . Go!"

He scooped the plasma rifle up off the table and deftly dismantled it piece by piece, setting the parts down as he worked with his pair of long, curved limbs that functioned as a set of dexterous hands. With four jointed digits at the end, they could use manipulate pretty much any tool or object with ease, as he was demonstrating with the plasma rifle.

Once it was completely apart, he picked all the parts back up and put them back together, making it whole once more. Then, he dropped it down with a metallic clatter and threw his hands up to signify that he was done.

"Finish!" I yelped, hitting the stop timer button on my cell phone screen.

My eyes bulged at the display shown and I let out a dismayed cry, falling back in my chair. "_38 seconds! _You are much faster than me."

In fact, it had taken me over a minute to do it.

Critter (that was the name I gave him) rubbed the main joint of his clawed arms against his antennae in a pleased manner, creating a sort of shifting sound. If I recalled correctly, it was a sound called "stridulation", which was something a lot of animals did, like crickets or rattlesnakes.

"Good work, _big guy_," I said, smiling at how happy Critter was just at this small victory.

He was a serf that helped around on the ship, and there was a second one lurking around somewhere, too. I called that one Creature. Neither of them had names when I met them, so of course, I had to give them their own. It was a lot easier than going around saying "hey you!" and hoping they knew who I was talking about.

Sure, Wolf did it just fine, but he was him and I was me. I liked names.

The two serfs had been nothing short of alarming to see the first time I'd finally come out of the drugged stupor the surgery had left me in. To me, they had looked like giant, man-eating praying mantises. I had been convinced they were going to kill me and eat me, not necessarily in that order.

It turned out they were the help.

Their race, known as the in'qua, were strikingly insect in appearance, complete with a hard chitin exoskeleton, big compound eyes, and thin, fibrous wings. I didn't think they were used for flying, though, but I couldn't be sure since I'd never seen them use the wings.

Of course, their arms were the most dangerous-looking things about them. When a situation called for it, they could unfold their arms with a second joint that hid a set of long, sickle-like claws. I'd only seen those once, though, and that was when Creature had cut through some sheet metal he was going to use for repairs like it was paper.

"Yes, yes, me good," Critter said, his pincers and the mandibles within working overtime to pronounce the Yaut'ja words.

His kind had even more trouble speaking the language than I did, but he and Creature were still a lot more fluent than I was.

"Let us go again," I said, resetting the timer on my phone. "I will beat you one of these times."

Though Critter seemed eager for another round, he quickly stood up and dipped his head, backing away from the table. Well, he didn't stand up all the way . . . The in'qua was an incredibly tall race, standing at almost fourteen feet high from my guesstimating, so he had to stoop down on his fours most of the time.

There was only one reason why he would act like that. My heart jumped in my throat and I swallowed it back down. Turning around, I smiled.

"_Wolf, hi!__" _I chirped.

He stood in the doorway, over eight feet of pure muscle, and my breath hitched just looking at him. The only thing he was wearing was his mask since the atmosphere was currently tailored to my needs. I thought I'd gotten used to him wandering around naked, especially since he had no visible genitalia most of the time (they were very much reptilian in most aspects), but these days . . .

Things were complicated with us—or, well, with me anyway. Wolf acted like he didn't notice anything. He acted like he didn't notice that I burned up whenever we met in the hallway, sat together, or trained. That his mere presence distracted me something fierce.

It was getting worse and worse as my frustrations grew. I didn't know what to do with this raw attraction I felt, or how I should go about even beginning to try to explain. The thought of rejection kept me frozen.

But my imagination was running wild.

I imagined what it would be like to feel his hands all over me. Those strong, deadly hands, suddenly so soft; commanding but gentle. Our bodies pressed together . . .

"What are you doing?" he asked me, striding inside the room and jolting me out of my thoughts.

Quickly, I looked away from him to keep my mind from running off like that again. Like it had been doing for weeks—or, what I thought was weeks. Staving off these uncouth desires was becoming more and more difficult, and I knew he would notice eventually if he hadn't already.

"We are competing," I replied, putting extra effort into keeping my voice even.

Wolf came up behind my chair and leaned forward, his hand on my shoulder and back almost against me. It only made my heart race and I knew then he _had_ to know. That he was doing this on purpose because it amused him, even if he was playing it was cool.

"Competing in what?" he asked. Some of his dreadlocks fell over his shoulder and brushed against mine.

My mind was in a fog and I tried to answer straight. "_We__'re seeing who can dismantle and reassemble this uh, this gun the fastest. Critter always wins." _I had to switch back to English since I couldn't concentrate.

Wolf huffed and moved away, freeing me from my temporary spell.

"_You wanna see if you can beat his time?__" _I wondered, motioning toward the gun. I still couldn't quite look at him.

"It is unlikely that I can do better than him."

"_C__'mon, try it_," I urged, getting up so he could have my seat.

We were hanging out in a sitting room of sorts that just had a table and some chairs. It was probably supposed to be for meetings, but it was hardly ever used so I had appropriated it as a recreation room. I often visited to listen to music or read the handful of books I had downloaded to my phone.

That was one of the many things the serfs were good at—Critter had been able to retrofit my phone charger to the consoles on the bridge, making it possible for me to charge my phone. Even though I didn't have access to the internet or any signals, anything I had downloaded prior to being catapulted into space was fully functional.

Including a good chunk of games I had and my stash of music. Anything that didn't require data usage was fair game and I couldn't have been happier.

Though Wolf hesitated at first, he eventually relented and sat down. "Fine. I will compete, as well."

I grinned, glad for the distraction, and picked up my phone. "_Okay, Critter__'s best time is 36 seconds. I know you don't know what that is but just do it as fast as you can and I'll tell you your time_," I said, talking a little faster than normal in my excitement.

It wasn't often that Wolf decided to humor me and my attempts to entertain myself.

At least he was wearing his mask, so he just had to wait for the translator to catch up to my babbling. He was fluent enough to understand me without the mask in most cases, but we still hadn't quite surpassed the language barrier as of yet.

I was picking up Yaut'ja slowly but surely, at least, though I still struggled.

A good chunk of the language was none-verbal, but because I lacked the necessary mandibles to communicate with, some of it was just beyond me. I tried to make up for it with my habit of using my hands to talk and just . . . redirecting that energy into making it useful.

Most of the time it proved unsuccessful so I just lapsed back to English.

I didn't even know how long it had been since I'd started living with him. Months? A year or two? Everything just blended together out in space. It didn't help that 'time' was not the same sort of linear concept that it was on Earth. It wasn't mapped or kept track of, it just happened organically without anyone needing to quantify it.

I didn't like it. But I worked with what I had.

My phone didn't even help. It was so far out of range that I didn't trust it to update properly when it died and I had to recharge it. It used my service provider to keep up to date, so it wasn't on an atomic timer or anything.

If the date was still updating normally, it had been a little over a year since the incident in Gunnison. It had to be more accurate than any guess I could muster.

"Are you ready?" I asked Wolf, my finger hovering over the button.

He sighed, then nodded.

"_Okay_ . . . Go!" I started the timer.

At an incredibly slow pace, he took everything apart from the rifle and set it down, then picked it all up again and reassembled it. I watched the timer all the while, snickering to myself the whole time, but I didn't dare say anything until he was done.

When he set the completed rifle down, I stopped the timer.

"_It took you more than two minutes! You did it even slower than me_," I taunted him.

Critter skittered over to my side of the table and peeked at my screen. He didn't speak any English, so I was going to have to explain.

"You were much faster than him. By a great many," I told him.

At first, Critter was going to celebrate, but he quickly shrank away. However, Wolf congratulated him as well.

Sort of.

"He is of course going to be better than me. He does it more often. Even you do it more often now that you have made a game of it," Wolf said.

It was close enough.

"Good job, Critter," I cooed, patting his head. I had gotten used to the weird way his rough exoskeleton felt with its tiny hairs and bumpy texture.

As if that was enough permission, he did his happy face rub.

"If only I could . . ." I struggled to find the word and deferred to Wolf. "_Persuade_?"

"It is 'persuade'."

"_Yeah_. If only I could persuade Creature to try it, too. He says 'me have important tasks'," I mocked, doing my best impression of Creature's voice.

"Everyone has more important tasks they could be doing," said Wolf, giving Critter a pointed look.

The serf dipped his whole body in a low bow and skittered out of the room.

"Bye, Critter," I called with a wave.

When he was out of sight, Wolf gave me a withering look that I could see even with his mask on. He said, "You indulge him too much."

I scoffed. "_Recreation is important, too. It keeps morale high_."

"As you say." His tone had the same energy as an eye-roll.

_"Sorry. You probably came for a reason and I interrupted you with shenanigans. Did you need something?" _I asked him, turning my phone off for the time being. I grabbed the extra chair and dragged it over to sit next to him at the table.

As much as I complained about where my mind went every time I was alone with him, I loved being close and having these little chats. Just spending time with him in general put me in a good mood.

He nodded. "There are matters that I must attend to, so our destination has been set."

"_How long will it take to get there_?" I asked, leaning on my elbows.

"I can open a portal nearby, so it will be before you need to sleep again."

Since I was so obsessed with wanting to know how much time stuff was going to take, Wolf had come up with the idea that using my sleeping schedule as a basis was good enough. He also tended to use day and night cycles when we were on a planet, which I appreciated.

"Where will we go?" I asked. I tried to use Yaut'ja as much as I could, but sometimes it was just so much easier conversing in English. Quicker, too, because I didn't have to pause and gather my thoughts as much.

"There is a clan that has called upon me. I owe them a favor and they wish to collect," he said. "It is good timing, really . . . We are running low on replacement parts and the ship needs to be refueled soon."

Curious, I asked, "What kind of favor?"

"I intend to drop off some of the meat you have been hunting for us, perhaps a little extra to pay for anything else we might need," he said thoughtfully, lounging in his seat.

Not unkindly, I said, "Ah, so you have been making me work to pay off a debt and have been calling it training!"

His mandibles clicked together in amusement and he patted my head, making me blush. "It has been both work and training. I also told them they could ask anything of me, so they want me to make good on that."

Smiling, I playfully batted his hand away and said, "Why do you owe them this?"

Wolf motioned vaguely at me. "They gave us quarter while you were injured and removed the parasites within you. This is the cost of that labor."

My stomach churned and my chest tightened. I put my hand against my sternum, pressing against the tunic I was wearing (I had lost my set of Earth clothes when they'd been cut off me for surgery prep, so I just wore a simple shift to cover up).

Even covered by loose fabric, I could feel the raised scar that bisected my entire abdomen. It wasn't Wolf's fault, but I didn't like being reminded of that time in my life. It was the reason I still wore clothes instead of taking Wolf's more natural approach: I didn't want to keep looking at my scars.

Wolf's were tales of triumph and hardships won.

This one . . . It was just a reminder of my bitter defeat.

I'd been a husk during my recovery. I didn't even remember a lot of it, as I'd been so sick on their alien medicine and out of sorts. For the most part, I'd been an invalid and relied heavily on Wolf and his serfs to take care of me.

My anatomy had been foreign, so the surgery they used to take the xenomorph embryos out of me had been extremely invasive and damaging. Physical therapy had been even more grueling than it had been on Earth when I'd broken my legs.

That had been a while ago, though, maybe six months or so (if my phone's clock could be trusted). I was up, I was training, hunting, and I actually felt really good.

Almost good enough to do a real trophy hunt, not the easy meat hunts he had me doing.

They'd also kind of tried to fix my knee, but it was pretty much beyond saving even for them. Instead, Wolf had procured a brace for me to wear. It made it possible for me to move without a limp, to run and jump and fight better than ever.

Finally, when I'd finished wallowing in self-pity, I spoke. "_I__'ll find a way to thank them."_

"Unnecessary," Wolf assured me. "Paying them with the meat and completing the task they ask of me will be enough."

"_Still_ . . ." Shaking my head, I decided to drop it. "_Did they tell you what they wanted_?"

He nodded. "They mentioned a warrant. Normally I would be paid, but I will do this for free."

I made a face. "You mean a warrant for your . . . arbitrator work?"

"That is correct."

An arbitrator was like being a space-cop for his people. Normally a clan had a few of their own to help enforce rules, but as a clanless, Wolf went out and chased down fugitives that had escaped and went on the run. So, I guess he was closer to a bounty hunter than anything.

I stared at my hands for a moment before meeting his gaze again. "Will I come with you on their ship?"

"I was planning on taking you, yes. You should be able to interact with others besides me and the serfs," he said, matter-of-fact as always.

Nodding, I said, _"_But not by myself?"

Wolf made his amused sound and said, "No, I would not leave you unaccompanied with a clan that you are unfamiliar with."

"_Oh. Good.__" _I let out a breath of relief.

It sucked being left on the ship. The last time he'd met with another clan, I had still been in poor health and it had seemed like ages before he'd finally returned.

Having him around as moral support for my public debut as his companion was a relief. I was always comfortable around him like he was a security blanket for me. It had always been like that, even when we'd first met. He just had that aura about him that helped me feel a little more at ease.

"I do not believe we will be there for long. Though, if I am lucky enough to draw the attention of even one female, we might end up staying longer," he said with blithe indifference and a wistful chuff.

Unbidden, my hackles raised and I squeezed my hands together.

After chewing on that, I said, "_When you say __'_attention', _do you mean . . . ?_"

Maybe I was misunderstanding the translation.

He gave me a long look, but I wouldn't return it and instead busied myself with packing up the rifle to put it away, since we weren't going to be playing the game anymore. Back in its box it went.

"Yes, attention as in their interest. As in mating and bearing a child."

I stood up faster than I meant to, making a big clatter as the box smashed against the table. I swore under my breath and checked it, but it wasn't damaged.

Wolf didn't say anything. I pushed stray hair out of my face and tried to appear blase as I said, "_Oh._"

"Have I offended you?" he asked me.

It took me a whole two seconds to respond while I tried to maintain my composure. "No . . . no. No, I am not offended. _I just . . . I gotta go.__"_

And like that, I ran the fuck away.

Jealousy wasn't entirely new to me, being that I had younger siblings. They took attention away from my parents and stuff like that—general petty child jealousies. This though . . . it had me more fired up than I'd ever been before. Angry, embarrassed, full of shame . . .

Why had I thought that he'd be interested in me? And if he was, what made me think we would be exclusive? Especially when he had females of his own kind he could be with. They would be more of a match for him than puny, weak, human _me._

The crush that I'd originally developed for Wolf had only grown as he'd cared for me during my darkest time. Had I just been projecting my desire for any relationship onto him?

Did I imagine things that weren't there?

No, there had to be something there. If he didn't care even an ounce for me, he wouldn't have gone through all the trouble to bring me. To wrack up debt to save my life. There was something there, I'd just never bothered to talk to him about him because . . . because . . .

Because what? I was too shy? Nervous? Scared?

Never had I let that stop me before.

I made it to the armory and felt even more shrouded by a gloomy cloud. I put the rifle box back and then leaned against the counter, my head bowed.

All I wanted was _him—_and for him to want me too.

Surely I was making a mountain out of a molehill. If I'd wanted something more, if I hadn't been sure about his intentions, I should have asked. How could I have expected an alien to understand without communicating?

It was already a bad idea to play coy with Earth men, so what was I doing not being forward with an extraterrestrial man?

Instead of coming clean when he'd asked me, I'd just run away.

That wasn't the old Nichole, so why would the new Nichole do that?

The thought of rejection was hard to swallow, though. If he did reject me, I was sure I'd get over it eventually. I hadn't just come here because I thought I'd get a boyfriend out of it. That had only been part of the reason why I'd called him, why I'd agreed to go with him.

How stupid would I have been to let this opportunity slip between my fingers? Even if he didn't see me as anything more than a protege, I still had so much to look forward to. All I had to do was figure out where we stood and then go from there. We were both adults and would handle this situation as such.

More than anything, I knew that if I wanted something, I just had to go get it.


	3. To the Edge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> I finally got this edited. It took a bit longer than I meant it to thanks to executive dysfunction. I won't need to change much of the next chapter, though, just clean it up a bit and reflect the character motivations better, so that definitely should not take more than a week to complete. Hope you guys are liking this new direction it's taking! I was really hoping to get the relationship out of the way a lot sooner than I did in the original draft so I'm at least feeling better about it haha.
> 
> Special thanks to all my patrons, Narttu, Erin, Atira, Andrew, Lily, Dark, Tonya, and Kendra! And, another thanks to Citrine for looking this chapter over for me even though she's read the same eight chapters like thirty times because I'm useless and can't get my shit together 8)
> 
> Also, I'm working on revising Better Days again in preparation for when I start seriously writing Starry Skies. If you don't know, that's my transformers fic. I seriously cannot stop revising things I just keep thinking of better ways to write my stories lmao. My writing style keeps evolving, too, so I'm naturally compelled to bring them all up to current standards haha.
> 
> ~ Crayola

I tried to hold onto my nerve, I really did. I clung to that mental state of 'go get your man' for the entire walk through the ship, keeping that resolve fresh in my heart. I imagined all the things I would say and ask—had it all planned.

There were just a few obstacles.

First, he wasn't where I thought he'd be. I had expected him to be on the bridge, navigating the ship, but Critter was alone in there, sitting in the top left corner just . . . hanging out? He didn't greet me when I entered, so I had to guess he was sleeping.

It was kind of creepy so I slowly backed out of the room to look elsewhere.

That was enough to sweep the wind out of my sails, but I worked myself back up and went on the hunt. He wasn't in the rec room where I'd been competing with the now-sleeping Critter. With that, I was at a loss and that was the second obstacle.

I was worried more about where he was than I was about what I was going to do. I checked all of the places I normally found him—the bedroom, the armory (though I was literally just there I had to check anyway), but they were all dead ends. The last place I checked was the training room, or _kehrite, _but he wasn't there either!

At a loss, I checked every single room on the damn ship, but there just weren't that many. It was basically a private ship, so I had a few utility rooms to check and the mess deck where we ate.

Well, there was that and the belly of the ship where all the machinery was, but I wanted to save that for last. It was even hotter than the rest of the ship, and I always felt like I was going to break something when I was down there.

Luckily, he was in the mess deck with Creature. They were going over the supplies; what we had, what we needed, and what we were giving away.

Creature noticed me first and gave me the same greeting he and Critter always did: "You."

Wolf turned away from the stockpiles and the hologram from his wrist computer disappeared. "Ah, there you are," he said.

I huffed, biting back a remark about him saying such a thing when it had been me searching for him this whole time. The nerve!

"Me," I replied to Creature, a bit exasperated. "You know, Creature, you may call me by the same name that Wolf calls me. I do not mind."

The in'qua shivered with disdain and said, "You and him am equal. You and me am not."

"Critter calls me 'Ast'ni', too," I countered.

"Him should not."

I rolled my eyes and decided to drop it. He was a man (insect) of decorum, so I'd just let him be. It wasn't hurting anything if he wanted to be formal with me, I just wished that he didn't expect me to be formal with him, too. We lived together, after all. Casual would be easier. Whatever made him comfortable, though.

To Wolf, I said, "I put that rifle away where I found it."

He nodded but said nothing, just watched me expectantly, as if he knew that I had come there for a reason. I was, of course, and I wanted nothing more than to say all the things I had cooked up while I was looking for him.

But, I didn't.

Instead, I pointed with my chin at the supplies he was going over. "Will we have enough?"

"Yes. The trip will be short, so we have plenty to give to the clan and have leftovers. You have done well with your hunting," he remarked, patting me on the head.

"I had a well teacher," I said with a smile.

"Good," he corrected me. "You had a good teacher."

"_Right," _I said. "_Do you need any help with the supplies?"_

Wolf motioned to Creature. "I have help."

"_Oh. Okay," _I sighed. "I wanted to talk to you, though."

He gave me a long look, then addressed Creature. "Ast'ni will help me with the supplies. Make a list of upcoming repairs so I might know what to barter for."

"Yes, yes," Creature said, groveling low as he backed out of the room without another word.

I waited a few extra seconds to make sure he was gone. Now that we were alone, intrusive thoughts started creeping into the back of my mind. Flustering thoughts of him bending me over the counter—I shook those images from my mind and tried to focus.

"What ails you?" Wolf asked me. "You've heated up."

That only made my blush deepen and I waved him off. "I'm fine. What do you need me to do?"

He regarded me for a second, then I started helping out with sorting the meat. Wolf pointed out what to grab and where to put it, so I shuffled things around while he logged them.

"What did you wish to speak about?" he asked me.

Shrugging, I said, "_I wanted to say that I'm sorry for leaving so abruptly like that."_

"Why did you?"

My face burned and I turned away to try and hide my embarrassment. "_I don't know . . . I guess . . . I guess I was jealous, hearing about you talk about that stuff."_

_"_About mating? Why would—ah, I remember. Your species is generally monogamous, yes?"

The word was foreign to me and even harder to pronounce, but I repeated it all the same and hoped for an explanation. Though, I had an idea what he meant through context.

"Monogamous?"

He nodded. "Taking only one person to be their mate for life."

"_Oh, monogamous. _Yes, we are. Are you not?"

"It depends. Normally, no, but there are exceptions, as I assume there are exceptions for you, as well," he said.

"_Yeah . . . I suppose so."_

Wolf pushed the wrapped meat out of my hands and hefted me up onto the counter so he wasn't towering over me. A deep purr was rumbling in his chest.

"Tell me what you want," he said, his voice low and head inclined toward mine.

I fidgeted and squirmed, trying to figure out how to respond to that while he was being so—so—distracting, playing with loose strands of my hair, and standing so close. I could barely think straight as it was, and now he was so close I could smell his hot, sandy scent.

"How do you choose your mates?" I asked at last, still unable to look him in the face. Without thinking, I put my hand against his chest.

The tone in his voice made me think he was surprised by the question as he said, "We fight."

Of all the answers I had expected to hear, that hadn't even made any of the lists. I was visibly shaken and I couldn't even think of a proper response except to babble: "_You . . . Do what now?"_

He rumbled in amusement at my response. "You heard me."

"I heard you but I do not understand."

It was a chore to remember to speak to him in Yaut'ja, and he really didn't help by letting me lapse back to English so frequently. I was going to have to ask him to be more strict with me.

"What is there to misunderstand? If someone is interested in another, a challenge is issued and they spar with each other to see if the pairing would be compatible." He explained it as if I was daft for not getting it in the first place.

My mind raced and before I knew it, my brain-mouth filter had failed me completely.

"I challenge you!"

Wolf stared at me as if I'd suddenly sprouted a second head. "You . . . what?"

The words had tumbled out of my mouth almost by accident and I could feel the blush creeping up my neck and face. I tried to keep my head high and just let more words bubble on out from wherever the first ones had come from.

"If I can beat you then I'd earn the right to—"

He stopped me there with a gesture and said, "It is not about winning or losing. It is about compatibility and impressing one another. Both parties have a chance to show off for each other and decide from there if they should go forward with the coupling."

"_Oh. Well, then that's better since I can't beat you . . ."_

Wolf purred. "I already consider you my important companion. We can forgo the formalities altogether at this point."

As utterly flattering as that was, I shook my head. "I want to. We have this . . . _saying _on Earth. _'When in Rome, do as the Romans do.'_ It means that when you are . . . _visiting _or living somewhere, you should follow their conventions. I wish to learn and follow yours."

I also didn't want to keep taking the easy route just because Wolf was into me. I still didn't quite believe it, so going this route would make it feel like I'd actually done something worthy of his attraction.

Really, couldn't even pinpoint the moment that I'd realized I had any sort of romantic or even _sexual_ attraction for this incredibly alien man in my life. Though he often practiced tough love and threw me out in the middle of the woods to fend for myself, he was also gentle when he needed to be. He was attentive and always made sure I had what I needed.

At the same time, Wolf didn't treat me like a liability or like I was "broken". Sure he'd given me plenty of time to recover from the surgeries and still treated me with some manner of caution, but the entire time he'd been making sure I was sticking to the physical therapy regimen.

"Well," he said, clicking thoughtfully, "If that is how you feel, then I cannot argue."

"Yes. This is what I want," I said after taking a breath.

"Then I will meet you in the kehrite. Be sure to wear your braces or it will be a short fight."

He left me sitting on the counter, my skin tingling where his claws had trailed down my shoulder. I sat there for a few seconds with my eyes closed. I took a deep breath and then hid my face in my hands, barely muffling my shame-filled groaning.

Wasn't I supposed to play hard to get or was that just some sort of teenage bullshit I'd bought into? I didn't fucking know. I'd never been in a relationship before and now I was trying to navigate one with an _alien._

Still, I gathered my wits about me and climbed off the counter. I hadn't even done any warming up and was gonna be a little stiff and rusty, but that was what I got for jumping the gun.

_Well, he kind of jumped right to it, too, _I reminded myself.

My hands wouldn't stop shaking no matter how hard I tried. I'd really gone and done it, and now we were going to see just how compatible we really were.

I jogged off some of my nerves, using the time I had to warm up a little bit. I often ran the halls around the ship to stay fit, so it wasn't out of the ordinary for me. After a short trip to the armory where my leg braces waited, I was feeling more at ease.

Then, with my legs braced up, it was off to the _kehrite. _I couldn't do any hard exercise without them since the pins had been removed during my surgery.

Wolf was standing in the center of the sparring area—unlike a regular gym, they didn't have any mats or cushions of any kind so it was the hard floor waiting for me should he toss me around like a rag doll. His stance was loose and casual and I made a derisive snort.

"You could take this as serious." The phrase didn't quite sound right but whatever. The point stood.

He didn't seem to care about my shoddy grammar right then, though. "Why? You will take it seriously enough for the both of us," he teased. He'd even taken his mask off.

Rolling my eyes, I said, "Yes, yes . . . I take everything seriously."

"Indeed you do."

"_So, _how does this work?" I asked, shaking some of the nervous energy and stretching.

"Use this as an opportunity to show me your best. I fully expect you to come at me with every intention to win," he said, rolling his shoulders.

Though he finally took a more battle-ready stance, I could still tell from his mirthful expression that he wasn't fully prepared to give me 100%. Not that I believed he ever fought me at his best, anyway, because it would be really easy to kill me.

"Okay. Will you do the same, then? Though, you have already impressed me on numerous occasions," I remarked, taking my place in the arena.

"I could say the same about you," he retorted.

With a huff, I said, "_Don't ignore the question."_

I held my defiant expression until he approached me. It wasn't a particularly aggressive move so I held my ground. I didn't want to let him get within arm's reach of me, but I also didn't want him to think that I was scared of him.

Because I wasn't.

Finally, Wolf said, "I will give you the normal handicaps since I do not wish to cause serious or permanent harm. But yet, I might show you a few new moves to surprise and impress." He pressed his mandibles together mischievously.

"_Oh okay then_, I accept," I said, rolling my eyes.

After an incredulous pause, he took a threatening step and growled. Startled, I slapped my palm against his sternum with enough force to push myself outside of his reach, my other arm up and ready to guard, but he only snickered at me.

The sound he made was the closest thing to "ow" that I'd ever heard come out of him as he rubbed his chest.

"We are slapping, now?" he quipped.

"_That was a . . . palm thrust, not a slap," _I scoffed, hoping he wouldn't notice that I was covering my ass.

Finally, I was feeling much more at ease than I had been. This was familiar. This was normal.

"_What? _Are you scared of me now?" I taunted.

His tusks clicked together; not quite provoked but perhaps close.

"_Well? You gonna fight me?" _I baited again, in English this time.

"As you wish," he rumbled.

And with that, he charged. I was barely managed to skirt out of the way of his reach before he could grab me. Already my heart was in my throat just at that near miss—I couldn't let him grab me. If he got a hold of me, I was done for.

For now, I would avoid and look for an opportunity. I'd stay on my toes and dance just out of reach, taking whatever potshots I could make until I found his rhythm and mine.

Then, I'd find a time and place to go in and show him what I was made of.

_Knees and elbows, _I reminded myself. The hardest parts of my body.

He swiped his claws in my direction but I hopped out of his extended reach, staying on the edge of the ring. When he came in again, I bobbed under his swing and saw an opening. I slammed my foot down on top of his knee and he staggered somewhat.

Not good enough.

Wolf made to grab me again and I had to scramble back, almost losing my footing in the process.

There was some disappointment that came with that particular failed attempt: if he was a human, it's likely that he would have been rendered completely immobile.

It had taken quite a bit of time to get used to the fact that he wasn't human, that I _could_ go hard and not worry about causing serious damage. I still couldn't bring myself to go all-out, though: it didn't feel right coming at him with any real intention of harm.

He eased up and said, "You can hit harder than that, surely. Stop thinking so much about what you are going to do and simply do it."

I grit my teeth together in frustration, but I knew better than to dive headfirst like he was trying to bait me into doing. Maybe I was thinking too much . . . but I still had to wait for the right moments. The perfect opening. If I didn't, I would just get caught and it would be over.

Dissatisfied, Wolf suddenly postured and let out a bellow that made me jump and put the hair on the back of my neck on end. I felt it just as much as I heard it.

"Warm-up is over. I am coming," he warned.

"'Warm-up'?" I squawked in indignation.

His response was to charge at me again, this time harder and faster. Though I let out a surprised squeak, I decided to retaliate rather than evade. I stepped into my power side so that when he came in to tackle me, I could load my back foot and swing at him.

Once again, if he had been human, I might have been able to lay him out. He powered through my counter instead and I had 300-odd pounds of alien warrior slamming me to the ground, leaving me dazed and gasping.

Part of me almost regretted issuing the challenge.


	4. Heart is Beating

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> Sorry this took an extra couple of days to post... I was having a hard time getting the tone and pacing right. It took a couple of drafts to make it feel as complete as it is and my beta Citrine was a real peach during the whole thing and never pulled any punches to kick me onto the right track. So! It's finally ready to post! Don't worry, this won't affect the posting of the next chapter. I'll still have that up on the weekend, too.
> 
> I have an extra special news bulletin, too! I made a discord server! You guys can all come and chat with me and everyone else. There are special boards for my patrons and a fun server game to play. There might be some kinks to work out as more and more people join and start poking things, so bear with me! The invite for the server is At2arpN and it's called Heart-Shaped Box. Come hang out and share some memes!
> 
> Special thanks to my patrons; Autumn, Anna, Danielle, Dark, Erin, Atira, Andrew, Lily, Kendra, Narttu, and Tonya! You guys are still so amazing :) Can't wait to chat with everyone!
> 
> ~ Crayola

Laid out on my back, I stared up at Wolf's smug expression. He was straddling me, keeping just enough weight off of me to ensure I wasn't crushed beneath him.

"This is not quite what I imagine when I think about leaving you breathless," he remarked with a mirthful purr.

Flustered, I pushed him off of me. "_Me, either," _I muttered, getting back up to my feet.

Wolf chuckled and then shifted into his ready stance to mirror me.

"Once we finish here," he said with a lascivious arch of his brow, "I will show you some more fun moves."

I smirked even as my face reddened. "I am sure you will."

"Then, let us begin again."

He barely finished speaking before charging. I retreated a step or two before I realized it was entirely a feint. Wolf laughed at me over it and I puffed up like an aggravated bird, glaring daggers at him.

"_You're an ass," _I huffed, playfully kicking him in the shin. I couldn't help the small smile toying at the corner of my lips, though.

"I apologize," he said, though I didn't believe for one second that he meant it.

Again, he tried a feint, but I wasn't falling for it this time and held my ground. His eyes narrowed, then he took a swing at me that I ducked under and popped off with a quick jab to his side—where a kidney would be if he was human and had one. I didn't actually know if he did or not.

But, it was a soft squishy part so it was worth a shot.

The blow landed and he grunted, then shoved me away. I stumbled back, barely catching my footing as he leveled another right hook at the side of my head. I jarred my hand deflecting it and quickly swept around behind him by spinning on my heel. I kicked the back of his knee so he buckled.

I seized the opportunity and used all my strength to drive him the rest of the way, but he grabbed my leg as it came down and unbalanced me with a heave. I fell flat on my ass but recovered quickly enough to get into a crouch and put my hands up to guard his retaliatory kick.

Though I protected my head just fine, the force of his blow was still enough to send me sprawling and make my forearms ache.

Though I was hurting, I still scrambled out of his reach and hopped up, putting some distance between us so I could regroup. I shook the ache out of my arms and flexed my fingers—still working.

My heart was racing and I let out an unsteady breath, watching him carefully as he circled me. He was probably trying to look scary and intimidating, but watching him move, crouched low and prowling toward me . . . it got my heart pumping for an entirely different reason.

"_Almost laid you out that time," _I remarked with a smirk.

"Yes, but I still have not yet seen your claws," he quipped.

My hackles raised. "Do you think I am not trying hard enough?"

He didn't answer right away. I bounced up and down, working up a rhythm, then lunged at him. Wolf easily gathered up my arms and held me fast. I fought against him for a second but he pulled me in closer. I grimaced and slumped, embarrassed that I'd fallen for his bait like that.

"It is not that you are not trying hard enough," he breathed in my ear, making my skin tingle, "but that these are not _your _claws. Show me how _you _fight, not how you think I want you to fight."

Back on my feet, I faced him. He wanted to see "the way I fight"? There was only one way I knew: how the FBI had trained us. It was a quick and dirty hybrid version of krav maga focused on subduing and detaining . . . Focusing on defending yourself and disarming perps. Avoiding a fight at all costs by striking decisively and brutally.

Maybe, though, that was good enough.

His grip softened to let me go but I lingered for another few seconds before backing away for another round.

"_Okay," _I said with renewed resolve.

Wolf didn't give me more than a couple of seconds before he stormed at me again. I held my ground and when he was close enough, I hit him with a full-power kick to his gut. It caught him off-guard and he retreated to recover, which boosted my confidence.

He was taller than me so he could reach farther, but I had some long ass legs. With the braces on, I could put some real power behind my kicks before he could grab me.

I was ready for his next approach and reacted with a round-house to his hip. It staggered him, so I kept the momentum going and used all my power to hoof him in the chest. With my strength enhanced by the braces, it was enough to send him stumbling away.

"_Ha! How d'you like that?" _I couldn't help but taunt.

"Finally, your true colors," Wolf rumbled, rubbing his chest.

"_I'm just getting started." _I grinned and spread my arms out in a mocking version of his challenge stance.

The blood in my veins was roaring; adrenaline coursed through me like fire. I had never felt so alive before, so in tune with everything. It was similar but also so different compared to my past experiences with facing an opponent—instead of fear, I was excited.

Arms up, I let him attack and ducked under his first swing and deflected his next, striking with my knee into his gut. He grabbed me by the shoulder I retaliated by yanking on his fingers and twisting his arm around so I could slip behind him.

Before I could finish that particular takedown, however, he planted his feet and used his brute strength to turn into my hold and throw me to the ground. Pain lanced up my spine. I rolled out of the way of his fist as it smashed into the ground, then used both of my feet to shove him away.

He grabbed me as I got to my feet and pinned my back against him, one arm around my neck and the other wrapped around my midsection.

For a moment I struggled against him, but he only gripped me tighter as if he wanted to crush me. Panic was welling up inside me. My mind went blank except for a tiny voice urging me to break free, and the best way I knew how was some good, old-fashioned SINGing.

I thrust my elbow into his solar plexus; the wind left him in a rush. I stomped my heel down on his instep, then bashed another elbow into his nose. He snarled and let go of me, giving me the chance to turn and knee him directly in the groin.

Sandra Bullock would have been proud.

Before I could grab his arm for another takedown, he picked me up and sent me flying. I found myself weightless for several heartbeats as I went sailing across the room.

Stars splattered across my vision when I landed. I didn't get up right away: my vision had given out to shiny blind spots and my ears were ringing. I couldn't tell up from down, and I'd momentarily forgot where I was.

When I remembered, I still couldn't figure out how to make my body move.

It was difficult to tell how long I was on the ground, but I hoped it was only for a few split seconds. My vision slowly faded from white and the room stopped swimming, so I picked myself back up to try and prepare for his next move, but I lost my balance and had to catch myself.

With my hand on my head, I looked around and took a few unsteady steps. The ringing in my ears was starting to fade.

I finally spotted him nearby, watching me. I couldn't quite catch my breath and I was starting to realize that I had gotten swept up in the moment, reacting on instinct when he'd grabbed me like that. It hadn't been my intention to hit him below the belt like that, but it had been second nature after so many training exercises in dealing with that exact same scenario.

My vision was swaying and two Wolfs were standing a few feet away, coming in and out of focus. I shook my head to try and shake off the daze.

_"Are you . . . are you okay?" _I asked upon realizing that he wasn't in a fighting stance anymore. "_I didn't mean to, I wasn't thinking."_

The fact that he didn't answer me was a bit alarming.

However, it seemed that he was distracted by looking at something on his hand. A shiny, green substance smeared over his fingertips. I staggered, still somewhat dazed from that landing.

For a second, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A mixture of concern and pride flashed through me.

"Are you bleeding?" I asked.

He snapped his head toward me with a sharp sound. I took a step back.

Sure enough, if I squinted, it was blood glistening against his darker green skin. It trickled down the front of his brow where I had split the thinner skin of his face. The whole maneuver was supposed to break an assailant's nose, but since he didn't _have _a nose, I'd just elbowed him between the eyes.

I didn't know what to say to him. I had already kinda apologized. Was I supposed to relentlessly tease him about it? If it was Devon, I would have done both.

"_I_ _got a little carried away, sorry," _I decided to say.

He snapped his head toward me with a growl, his lock-like tendrils arching through the air and clacking against one another. I took a step back as true fear flashed through me. The only time I'd ever seen him this worked up was when we were fighting actual enemies: the alien queen, the xenomorph hybrid.

Having that sort of killing intent turned upon me froze me in place.

I searched his face for any signs that he was fucking with me. I mean, he had to be. He wouldn't just go back on his word—he'd already told me he wasn't going to cause permanent or severe harm. As he took a few threatening steps toward me, though, I was seconds away from begging his forgiveness.

That, however, would be unsightly.

The tension in his shoulders eased by a margin and he growled, "That was a good hit. Shall we see if you can land another before I end this?"

Then, as I opened my mouth to retort, he let out another roar that made me jump out of my skin and all of that anxiety settled right back into my chest. Just like before, I could feel it deep within my bones. My adrenaline spiked and my hands started to shake.

Moreso than fear, though, I admired just how much presence he had in everything he did. The way he moved, flexed, spoke, fought . . . It demanded my attention and wouldn't let go.

Even when he was at his scariest, my heart only swelled with affection.

And though I wasn't afraid of him hurting me on purpose, I still couldn't help but bolt for the exit as he came barreling at me like an angry bull.

I hit the door frame on the way out, veering off-course and smacking into the wall. I was out in the hall, though, and the pain from hitting the wall was enough to knock some sense into me.

Why was I running?

Oh yeah, because my maybe-boyfriend was a big scary alien.

"Catch me if you can, big guy!" I yelled over my shoulder, deciding to play it off like I hadn't just taken off like a frightened doe and was instead making it all part of the game.

Thanks to that healthy dose of terror, I wasn't stunned anymore and could see straight again, could move more readily. I was halfway down the hall, heading in the direction of the bridge when he stormed out of the kehrite and gave chase.

For the most part, I had the ship mapped out. I didn't have an actual destination in mind, I was just going to run for a bit until I came up with some sort of end plan.

His snarls only spurred me on more. A few times I had to pick up the pace and risk running straight into a corner—his footsteps were heavy enough that I could feel them, and the wind from his swiping claws grazed the back of my neck.

At one point, I grabbed a shelving unit and hauled it down as an obstacle. In hindsight, I regretted it because poor Critter was going to have to fix that. It was necessary, though.

If I could find a good enough distraction, I could hide and ambush him . . .

Speak of the devil.

Critter showed up in one of the corridors, blocking the way. I almost slowed down to keep from slamming into him, but we noticed each other at the same time and I knew I had my opportunity.

"Critter, go high!" I commanded.

Instantly, he skittered up the wall to cling to the ceiling.

I ran underneath him and then pointed behind me without stopping. "Distract him!"

When Wolf came down the hall, Critter dropped back down to the floor. I took a break at the corner up ahead to catch my breath and observe what was about to happen from a safe distance.

At most, I expected Critter to just stand in the way and be a nuisance. He just needed to slow Wolf down.

However, he really took it the extra mile.

"Leave Ast'ni alone!" Critter shrieked, flaring his wings as wide as they would go and raising his claws high in a threat display.

He took up the entirety of the hallway without even standing at his full height, and he still couldn't spread his wings as far as they would go. Critter hissed and cried in shrill waves—sounds that I had never imagined would come out of an insect. It raised the hair on my arms and I winced.

Part of me wanted to go and reassure him that it was a misunderstanding. Another part of me was also actually worried he could hurt Wolf. In fact, Wolf was caught so off-guard that he retreated.

This was the distraction I wanted, though. I had to trust that both of them would come out of this okay. I just hoped that Wolf had enough compassion for the serf that he wouldn't punish Critter when it was my fault he was like this.

It was kind of cute that he was trying to protect me like that, though.

I used what precious time Critter could give me to look around. I had no weapons on me, but I did have the element of surprise on my side so long as he thought I had taken off.

It was only a matter of time before he swerved Critter and came for me, so I left them to it and took up my position. Instead of staying right on the corner, I moved away from it so there was about a foot between me and the edge, and I listened carefully for Wolf.

Critter's hissing stopped and was replaced by a profuse amount of apologies. I grimaced, vowing to make it up to him later.

Wolf's thundering steps came hard and fast. My muscles tensed and I lowered myself so I'd be harder to spot until it was too late. There wasn't much wiggle room when he saw heat signatures, but it wasn't anywhere near as refined compared to when he had his mask on, so my chance of success rose.

When he turned the corner, I leaped into action, muscle memory taking over. I snagged his arm as he came by and, with a well-placed forearm to the back of his elbow and using his forward moment against him, I threw him face-down into an armbar take-down.

It was one of the first things I'd learned when training with the police department and then, later, the FBI.

Swinging around, I kept his arm hyper-extended and drove my knee between his shoulder blades.

Swept up in the heat of the moment, I shouted, "_Stop resisting!"_

_"_Or what?" Wolf snorted, his face squished into the floor.

I faltered for a second. The next thing that was supposed to follow was "you're under arrest". I'd also have a gun drawn and pointed at the back of his head for added effect, but this wasn't an arrest and he wasn't a suspect.

Instead, I bravely boasted, "Or I will break your arm!"

"Can you?"

There was one thing I had forgotten—or, rather, never encountered—and that was that the armbar only worked if you were similar in strength and size. I'd managed to take him by surprise and made it work out that way, but he was still . . .

Wolf used his sheer size and strength to reverse the hold and toss me into the wall. I screeched with surprise (a wholly undignified sound) and steadied myself, raising my arms to guard. I was trapped, though, his massive form caging me in.

It was the worst thing that could have happened in a fight against him.

He came quick and hard, throwing his fist at me. I steeled myself against the blow, but he merely punched the spot next to my head, leaving me unharmed.

I peeked at him from between my elbows and slowly lowered my guard.

Both of us were inches away from each other, breathing heavily.

"You missed," I remarked.

Wolf chittered in amusement. "Did you think I would bludgeon you over a cut?"

Chagrined, I said, "_Maybe. You can be very intimidating when you want to be_."

He was still crowding me, boxing me in against the wall. "You were full of surprises this time around. That pin at the end had some real skill behind it."

Sighing, I let myself relax. "_I learned it on Earth_. _You really couldn't have let me win even once, huh?_"

"Small victories," he said with a purr, leaning even closer so that our foreheads were almost touching.

"We say 'baby steps'," I murmured, not unkindly.

Wolf's fingers found my hair, let loose from the braid I usually tied it in. He'd stopped bleeding but some of it from before was still smeared and drying on his brow. I gave the scabbing wound a ginger touch and then he winced, making me withdraw again.

I told him, "_You were magnificent as always,_" and put my arms around his neck. His rough, warm skin rubbed against mine and I ached for more contact; my heart was still racing.

His tusks pressed together in a fond smile and he leaned in closer, his hand running along the contours of my side and coming to rest at my hip. The pressure of his fingers made me heat up from the inside out.

Those hands that could break me were so gentle now, his claws just barely scraping against my scalp and tracing lines of desire across my skin.

"Your growth is impressive," he rumbled, his voice low enough to vibrate against my chest. He paused in his affections and made a pointed nod toward the hall. "But we should relocate."

I followed his gaze and just barely managed to spot Critter's head duck away as he was caught red-handed—or red-clawed, maybe—spying on us.

Chortling, I said, "_He's just trying to make sure you didn't murder me, probably_."

Wolf scoffed. "That one has grown too attached to you. I do believe he was ready to fight me to the death for you had I not been able to pull rank."

Grinning, I said, "_He had you a little scared, didn't he? I didn't think he had it in him_."

With a huff, Wolf pulled me toward him. "I am never scared. Now . . . Let me take you somewhere more private to give you a new lesson."

I giggled and let him lead me away.


	5. Extraterrestrial

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> Right on time like I said it would be OwO like some sort of Christmas miracle except it's September. Uh. I don't know.
> 
> Anyway, casual reminder that my beta Citrine wrote half of this for me lmao. She's the real MVP. Just like my patrons; Autumn, Anna, Danielle, Dark, Erin, Atira, Andrew, Lily, Kendra, Narttu, and Tonya! Also valuable players. Next week I'll try to have the next chapter up but I might need a bit of extra time, depends on how many edits and revisions I have to make and whether or not my executive dysfunction is getting to me.
> 
> Join my discord server :) The invite code is At2arpN. Come chat and make friends!
> 
> ~ Crayola

There was an unrelenting urgency from both of us during the short trip leading up to the bedroom. He couldn't get the door open fast enough.

Once inside, I started to unfasten the braces on my leg, but was finding it to be a difficult task: my hands were shaking. Wolf stepped in and helped slide them off.

My shirt, at least, was easy. He lifted it up over my head with a single gesture and it, too, was left forgotten at our feet. He, of course, was already nude.

Strangely enough, for all my hemming and hawing over covering myself, there was no unease. Not in the same way there would have been had it been another human there, appraising me with traditional standards and expectations.

There were other ways I needed to measure up, and I already had.

Wolf hooked his arm around me and pulled me against him; a few seconds of skin to skin contact before he lifted me by my hips and playfully tossed me in the bed.

He pounced and rolled me over and over in the furs, his weight causing me to sink all the way into the bed. Apprehension stirred inside me but it wasn't alarm yet. Not until he bent low enough for his breath to be on my skin, for his powerful mandibles to cage me in, and he said, "You cannot escape me now."

I felt it against the inside of my knee, warm and hard but otherwise unlike anything I thought it would be. He coaxed himself out into the open, sliding his fist up and down so his length gradually ventured free of its sheath.

My eyes widened and my face turned red. In the time I'd spent on Earth as an adult, I hadn't looked for anything like intimacy from anyone. My mission had been too dire to even consider it. But I caught myself wondering now—if I had, would I have felt better prepared for this moment?

All that fear about not being good enough to best him in combat . . . all that anxiety was migrating elsewhere now.

Would I be enough to _please _him?

Wolf trapped my wrist between two claws and drew me in close.

"I would like for you to touch me," he rumbled. "Do you consent?"

I didn't trust myself not to stutter something unintelligible, so I just nodded. He guided my hand into place on him, showed me the pressure of the strokes he'd done on himself.

"This is—" I said, stammering. "Uh, what is the word? We call it —"

I twisted to try to hide the heat surging into my face, but it was fruitless. The rising tide was just beneath my skin, an inferno of it, and he could see it light up my body like a wildfire visible from space.

"Um, it changes depending on what we mean. _Penis, or dick, or cock, or_—"

There was a trace of laughter in his reply, but it was mostly withheld for my sake. "It is the same as the word for pleasure."

"_H'tern_," I murmured.

Somewhat emboldened, I added a flourish to what I'm doing with my hand. The groan he gave in response was long and lowing, like that of a weary king lion stretching after an afternoon of sunning in the warm dirt.

He pulled away from me to kneel between my knees. His mandibles trapped my waist in close confinement, his asymmetric tusks scratching just enough to lift a thin pink line out of my flesh as he moved down, down.

"And—" My breath caught as the rough, pebbled texture of his skin brushed against my inner thigh. "—and mine?"

He purred. I could feel the heat of his mouth there, setting off a fluttering in my belly, like the birds that take flight when he bursts from cover to pursue his quarry.

"As you say, it changes." His tone was sly as he continued. "For now, it is _se'pkaith_, the word for banquet or feast."

I gasped, my sharp intake of breath immediately making me dizzy. Wet heat spread where his mouth touched the most delicate parts of me.

Like the rest of him, it was not what I expected. He didn't have the tenderness that a human with soft lips and a seeking tongue might. This was pure thrill, pure risk—the same as any hunt, multiplied a thousandfold.

My muscles turned to liquid. I felt myself slipping out of my body, the sensation too much to take in at once. Wolf hooked his arms around my thighs, dragging me closer, lifting my lower half off the bed entirely so he could forge deeper into the join of my legs with his mouth.

I clutched at the furs, dragging them up with me, their soft caress drawing me into a place of boundless, luxurious pleasure.

As he indulged in my flesh like it's a feast for the taking, a kind of windup began inside of me. It was similar to the sensation of perching on a tree limb, prey placid and unassuming below, and the knowledge that soon will come a window in which I have to take action.

This was worse than that, more unsteady and maddening because now I was powerless at the mercy of what Wolf is doing. I was caught between a frantic impatience and delirious satisfaction.

I hauled myself up at the waist so I can reach far enough to thread my hands through his thick locks. I pulled him back down onto the bed with me.

"Us humans would say _'don't spoil your appetite_.'" I tried to inject some teasing into my voice, but my head was whirling on my neck and I could barely manage speech to begin with.

"I could indulge for days and never be sated," he replied.

One of his huge hands squeezed down my thigh as the other went to my chest. My back arched to him in offering—his talons on my breast were tantalizing. There was the suggestion of danger playing just behind his gentle ministrations.

"You are still certain?" he asked.

"Yes," I said. _Yes_.

An embarrassing sound left me as his fingers moved back down. There was a trigger of nerves right at the apex of all that heat and longing, and when his thumb moved over it I nearly lost hold of myself entirely.

He slowly pushed one finger into me. I bit back a string of desperate curses. But not because it was too much.

For as long as we had been together, my life had been about pushing further and harder. He had served as a wall, let me beat my fists against him until they bruised and bled just so I would know what I was capable of.

The answer was always the same: more. I would always be capable of _more_, and more is what I would always want.

I pulled myself together enough to give him a hard look. "You said you would not go easy."

Laughter rolled through his chest. The next finger he added threw my head back into the furs and I couldn't hold my moan. With two fingers working at once, he was coaxing from me a breathless stream of nonsense words and soft cries.

It was almost more than I could take, but I knew it was nothing compared to what was still to come.

His withdrawal left me open and frustrated, eliciting a disappointed groan. I was dizzy with desire, desperately clawing for that which edged just out of my reach.

"Are you ready?" Wolf asked me, his hips poised and the barest hint of him brushing against the juncture between my legs.

"Yes!"

With a smooth thrust and the burst of first-time pain, he was inside me. My hips rocked and I clutched at his shoulders, my fingers digging into his tough skin.

He held still, waiting for me to adjust to this new intrusion. My breathing came quick and shallow against his chest as I clung to him. There was a stinging at my entrance, but it was easily overridden by a sensation of delicious fullness.

My thoughts turned broken and wild—there was only the basest and most primal of needs ruling me now.

The same might have been said for Wolf. He shuddered as my body tightened around him. The two of us huffed and panted in the small cocoon of space we'd wrought for ourselves.

One of his hands cradled my head to the curve of his throat as if the closer we were, the more bearable the waiting would be.

Little by little, he rolled his hips closer to mine and I wailed as he pushed deeper still, until finally he was fully seated inside of me. I could feel the head of him knocking at the absolute limit of what my body would allow, but the strain of down below was nothing like the chords of my heart, which felt as though they could burst at any moment.

I was as taut as a bowstring, my blood singing like it did in the immediacy of battle.

"Try to relax," he purred.

Panting, I let the tension out of my hips and rested my weight against the furs bunched beneath us. I focused on the heat of his breath against my shoulder and deep tones of his husky voice.

Wolf's encouraging purrs made it easy to let go and give in to the glowing embers of desire simmering inside—and when he started moving again, slowly at first, it wasn't gasps of discomfort being drawn from me but of a feral need.

Wolf's mandibles flared as he thrust into me harder and faster until he found a rhythm that left me breathless and elicited the right sounds from me. I stroked his ego when I could find words through the haze of our coupling—how absolutely _good _he was making me feel.

For once it was gone . . . My apprehensions, my anxieties, my insecurities. It was just me and him, locked together and lost to the moment.

He kept up the steady pace and a knot was forming in the pit of my being; I fell quiet as I focused on it, digging my fingers into his back, his arms, his shoulders. Anything I could reach, whatever I could touch to keep him close.

His growls and purrs grew more insistent and he propped himself up on his elbow to dig in deeper.

I rocked my hips to meet his rhythm, desperately trying to work the knot that was so close to unraveling. Panting, whimpering, waiting—until finally I came undone in a burst of uninhibited shudders and gasping.

Wolf barely slowed, acknowledging me with a few brushes of his face against mine, mandibles raking across my skin.

"My turn," he rumbled, teasing my flesh with his tusks and claws.

He caged me in with his weight and pinned me into the furs, digging in with his hips. It drew a burning and ragged gasp out of me. His mandibles pressed into my throat and adrenaline licked through me.

His rhythm changed from the long, careful strokes from before into quick, deep thrusts that had me jerking beneath him.

I didn't have time to come down from my soaring high before a new bout of sensations battered my lit nerves. I was pressed deeper into the bed, his claws dug harder into my arms; his mandibles scored down the thin skin of my neck, leaving raised marks.

And I was lost to it, whispering and groaning his name over and over.

I couldn't keep up. We decoupled long enough for him to flip me over, and he was inside again, holding my hips and grinding with reckless abandon.

Even with the cooler temperature of the room, I was working up a sweat. The slickness of my thighs egged him on, deeper and harder.

He grew uncharacteristically quiet after a brief lapse of time, and just as an ache was beginning to form between my legs and in my muscles, he buried himself as far as my body allowed, reaching his own climax with a low, rolling snarl.

The force of it pressed me into the furs and I let out a muffled wail. We stayed together as he finished twitching, both breathless and spent.

He collapsed atop me and I squirmed.

"_You're going to squish me_," I protested once I had caught my breath long enough to form words.

Wolf retracted and rolled off me onto his back. I shifted around until I was the same, panting and trembling.

The furs felt especially lush against my skin and I writhed around like a lazy cat, just enjoying the way it felt. We lapsed into a comfortable silence and neither one of us felt a particular desire to fill it.

I fully expected that to be the end of it, but Wolf took me by surprise and pulled me against him. I automatically moved onto my side and made myself comfortable in the crook of his arm, his heat making my skin flush.

He must have sensed my unspoken confusion, because he said, "Humans require physical affection, correct?"

It was the first time I ever even remotely considered anything he did as "cute".

"I mean, yes, but how did you figure that out?" I asked, feeling free to snuggle into him.

I had been feeling fairly touch-starved, so as long as he was offering I was going to make up for all the deficit I'd accumulated over my years of social isolation.

Wolf made an annoyed face and I thought maybe my question was the cause, but he explained, "I met an . . . obnoxious female when I took you for your procedure."

"Oh?"

Though he seemed reticent, he told me the story. "She is, what we consider, undesirable. Small, generally sickly. Physically incapable of many things. Apparently, she has spent most of her abundant free time studying the various trophy prey, specializing in humans."

"_You guys are mean._" I was still listening, but my eyes were closed.

He snorted. "Had she been born male, she would have been culled. She was instead given room to do as she wished so long as she stayed out of everyone's way."

"_Still mean," _I muttered.

Wolf ignored me and continued. "When she learned of our arrival, she was quick to come and speak with me about you. What I planned to do with you, what sort of procedure I was seeking, if I was equipped with everything you would need. She was . . . Persistent and quite excitable."

"_She sounds adorable, if a little annoying_," I murmured in English.

Exhaustion was starting to set in and I was feeling sore, but content. I pressed closer against him and bent one leg over his.

"She would have liked to meet you but you were in poor shape, so I merely let her talk. Despite herself, she had good information and I was grateful to her," he said.

I hummed in acknowledgment.

His mandibles clicked together in a thoughtful manner. "I am well versed in hunting, but I suppose I did not know much about how to deal with your recovery."

Smiling, I nuzzled against his shoulder and he held me tighter. "I think you are doing a good job."

Wolf grumbled in what I took as embarrassment. His claws traced lazy patterns across my skin.

"Will I get to meet this female when we visit? I would like to," I announced.

Sure, some of it was because I wanted to sate my own curiosity, but I also felt like she would probably appreciate it. Especially since she didn't get to before.

I would let her know that I was grateful for her indirect help.

"If you wish," Wolf said with some derision. "We should both sleep. When I wake, I will take us to their ship. It is orbiting an uninhabitable planet for now, waiting for us."

"_Excellent_," I said.

"It is 'excellent'," he replied, providing me with the Yaut'ja equivalent.

"Excellent," I repeated, already starting to doze off.

I hadn't been feeling particularly sleepy before, but after everything we'd just done, I was spent and ready for a nap.

Wolf slept much less often than I did, so I figured it was about time for him to rest, too.

The low hum of the ship's machinations droned on in the background and Wolf's purring lulled me. I pulled the furs over my legs and hips—not because I was cold, but rather because it gave me an extra sense of security as I drifted off in Wolf's arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PS, I did the bare minimum edits to this to make it consistent with the direction I'm taking the fic so I'm sorry if things are a bit messy or there are a few extra typos...It's just...I'm such a prude lmao.
> 
> REMEMBER, JOIN MY DISCORD! At2arpN!
> 
> Okay bye.


	6. Wavelength

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> Fun fact: I am so disorganized I literally don't know what I named this chapter before so now it has a new name haha whoops.
> 
> I would have had this up a little earlier in the day but I went to the beach heh heh. We go every Saturday until the cold weather rolls in. Kid loves it. But that's neither here nor there. Since I've been doing good about posting these chapters once a week, I don't have a lot to say so I'll just thank my patrons, Autumn, Anna, Danielle, Dark, Erin, Atira, Andrew, Lily, Kendra, Narttu, and Tonya!
> 
> See you guys next week!
> 
> ~ Kayla

Wolf was gone by the time I woke up. I tamped down my disappointment and stretched out across the empty space. The bed was a little bigger than a king-size back on Earth, so even if I spread out as much as I could, there was still tons of space left.

It took me a hot minute to work myself up to get out of bed, but I'd have to since Wolf said when we woke he'd take us to the clanship. Oh, but the furs were soft and warm, I was comfortable and content . . . It would have been nice to just be lazy for a little while, but there were things to do.

Like take a nice, warm bath. I was a little sore in places I'd never been before and I wanted to wash all the dried sweat off my skin.

With a bit of wincing, I finally crawled out and shivered in the cold; The room was about fifteen degrees cooler than the rest of the ship to facilitate better sleep. Without the warmth of the furs around me, it was actually a bit chilly.

I was about to put my glorified shirt on but figured there was no point, and no one would care if I was out wandering around in the nude. I just left it on the floor, but I at least picked up my leg braces and set them down on a table where they'd be safe. I'd put them back in the armory later.

As soon as I stepped out of the room, Critter dropped down from the ceiling and scared the living out of me.

"You!" he declared as he did.

"Shit!" I gasped in surprise, almost stumbling back into the room in my fright.

Not too long ago, I might have kicked the poor guy in the gut or something. I didn't feel so wound up any more, though, not so on-edge or stressed out. Even though I didn't really like space, I still felt more at ease on Wolf's ship than I had back on Earth.

"Yes, me," I growled once my heartbeat stabilized somewhat. "Do not startle me like that."

"Apology, Ast'ni. Has master done harm?"

"What . . . ? No—"

He disregarded my answer and fussed over me for a moment, bombarding me with frantic ministrations from his forelimbs. His antennae swiped across my face, neck, and shoulder in gentle sweeps.

"Critter, stop it!" I reprimanded, swatting at and shying away from him. "What are you doing?"

The big baby backed up and ducked his head, his antennae drooping. "Master was angry."

I sighed. This could have been avoided if I'd explained everything to him earlier, but there just hadn't been a chance.

"No, Critter, he was not. It was a misunderstanding," I told him as nicely as I could.

Unconvinced, he studied me from a socially acceptable distance.

His 'kicked puppy' expression softened some of my edges. Would he even understand what had really gone on if I explained? I didn't really feel the need to, though. It wasn't his business.

"Everything is fine. We were playing a game and it . . . heated up. He was never mad," I assured him. "I did not mean to . . . _uh . . ._ trick you. I only wanted to, _um, _slow Wolf down. I hope he was not mean to you."

God, having a full-blown conversation exclusively in Yaut'ja was hard. I really wished Critter and Creature knew more English, but it couldn't be helped. It had only been the better part of a year, so really I should have been glad that I knew as much as I did.

Critter rubbed his face with one claw—chagrin. "No, was normal. But Ast'ni injured?"

"No, I'm fine. You want to see for yourself?" I asked.

At first, he seemed somewhat hesitant, but he lifted a forelimb and canted his head to the side, asking permission this time to touch me. I appreciated his request and lifted my arms to give him my consent to examine me. I didn't normally mind his friendliness, but he also didn't normally ambush and accost me when I least expected it.

He made a scooping motion to pick up my left arm and showed me a mottling of deep bruises on my bicep, then pointed out the distinct tracing of claw marks down my side, red and inflamed. I was left a bit dumb-struck as he turned me around and described more bruising down my back.

When he started to gravitate away from my torso and down to my legs, I pushed him away and took a few steps back, holding up my hand to stop him.

"I get the picture," I huffed.

Critter's antenna quivered and he pawed at me in concern. "Ast'ni injured."

I shook my head. "It is fine, Critter. I promise. He is not mad at me. This was an accident. We were sparring so it is normal to get hurt."

Even though I said that I knew several of them were definitely not from our fight.

He stared at me for an uncomfortably long time. I shifted my weight from foot to foot, trying to figure out what to say to him. Anything to get him to just stop looking at me with those big, bug eyes.

"Hey," I said when I couldn't handle it anymore.

His mouthparts twitched, letting me know he heard me.

"I am okay. Wolf is not mad at me and he did not actually attack me," I assured him, reaching up to set my hand atop his head.

Critter made a pleased hissing noise and finally relented, moving out of my way. I gave him one last look to make sure he really believed me—which I thought he did—before swiftly moving on down the hall. I supposed that it was nice that Critter cared enough to check up on me, even if his concern had been misplaced.

The washroom was a hop, skip, and a jump away. Not quite directly across from the room, but adjacent to it. I slipped inside and closed the door.

Now I just had to remember how to fill the basin.

It was basically a big metal tub built into the floor. I'd only used it on my own a few times before, and usually, Critter drew the bath. However, I'd made him show me so I could be more independent, especially since I wasn't a barely-functioning invalid anymore.

Still, it reminded me of my sleepover days. Staying over at a new friend's house, trying to figure out how to use their shower.

Naked and afraid.

Eventually, I remembered which button to push and water started bubbling up from the bottom. Steam wafted from the surface of the piping-hot bath and I slipped in, sighing with content. After taking a minute to just soak, I grabbed the scrub stone and gently rubbed it across my skin, taking some time to examine myself while I cleaned and figure out what had Critter all up in his feelings.

I skipped past what Critter had already pointed out and took a closer look at my hips, thighs, and anything else I could see without a mirror. My back was pretty sore, but I attributed that to being thrown across a room during our sparring match, as well as a few of the other bruises and scrapes.

However, the raised skin on my neck—tender even to the most tender of touches—as well as the distinct, finger-shaped blotches on my hips could only have come from our coupling. There was a spattering of nicks from when he'd drawn his tusks across my skin, where he'd dug his clawed hands into me . . . holding me tightly.

I shivered at the memory, heating up from the inside out and I smiled to myself. So what if he liked it a little rough? I remembered enjoying myself, too. They were superficial wounds that would heal, but the time we shared, the way it felt to have him against me, inside me . . .

Well, that was anything but superficial.

Just a short while later, Wolf entered and pulled me from my fantasies.

"_Oh, hey_," I greeted him unceremoniously, sitting up. A strange sort of embarrassment flashed down the back of my neck, elicited by being 'caught' having those thoughts.

Without saying anything, Wolf walked over and helped himself to my bath, drawing a squeak of surprise out of me. His added mass caused water to slosh over the edges of the basin and flood across the tiled floor.

"_This is my bath_," I complained as he heaved me up with one arm. "_We can't both fit!_ Go get your own."

However, he proved me wrong by sitting me atop his lap. Face flushed, I slouched down a bit to hide my figure beneath the water's surface. I wasn't really sure how to feel about sharing a bath, though we'd just shared a lot more than that.

Bath time was my time.

"Now we both fit." He sounded smug.

Before I could come up with a witty retort, Wolf sank deeper into the water, taking me with him. I had to adjust to keep my head from slipping under, propped against his chest with an arm hooked over the edge of the tub.

"Was I so bad that you are trying to drown me?" I huffed, baiting him into a conversation.

Wolf just rumbled with amusement. "As with all things, there is room for improvement, but no. You were not so bad that I am trying to drown you."

Though I was sure it was supposed to be a compliment, I took it as a challenge. "I will improve," I intoned.

"You always do," he purred.

For maybe the first time in quite a few years, I was feeling at ease, though maybe somewhat awkward, sitting there on his lap in the warm water. It was somewhat surreal, like I was going to wake up from a dream.

Of course, I couldn't just let myself have something nice without overthinking it.

Were we supposed to talk at length about it? Just carry on like normal? I wasn't entirely sure how I was supposed to act. At least for the moment, I could allow myself to feel as carefree as I could.

Instead of letting my thoughts fester, however, I came clean.

"How does this work?" I asked.

"How does what work?" he rumbled.

On a whim, I fished one of his hands out from the water and looked it over, marveling at just how big it was compared to mine. I couldn't believe I'd come out the other end of our coupling without more injuries to show for it.

How much had he been holding back?

"Do we have to hide our relationship?" I asked once I was done stalling.

Wolf took my wrist and pulled my arm straight, rattling thoughtfully as he traced the markings left on my skin with his free hand. I squirmed and snatched my limb back, not wanting him to worry.

"_It's nothing_," I said with a shrug.

When he didn't say anything, I finally looked at him over my shoulder and flashed a smile. "Really, I am okay. I am . . . happy." It took me an extra beat to find the right Yaut'ja word for 'happy'.

"I am glad," he purred, nuzzling me. "To answer your question: only sometimes."

I responded with a knowing nod. "_It depends on whose company we're in."_

"Correct."

"The clan we are visiting?"

He thought about it, then said, "We should not be overt but we do not need to pretend."

I rolled my eyes at his non-answer but accepted it anyway. "_Okay."_

We lapsed into a comfortable silence for a few minutes. Then, quite abruptly, he heaved me up and out of the tub. I squawked and caught myself from falling on my face and slipped on some of the water as I tried to stand.

"_What was that for?" _I whined. "_I wasn't done with my bath!"_

"We cannot sit here forever," he announced, climbing out after me.

"Why? Am I tempting you?" I teased.

His tusks clacked together and he didn't reply right away.

"That is a yes," I giggled, plucking my 'towel' up where it was folded on a table. Really it was just a square piece of cloth as tall as I was.

Wolf always just air-dried, leaving water trailing everywhere that either Creature or Critter would have to clean up.

_They're really gonna have something a mess to clean now,_ I thought, carefully avoiding the puddles of water.

"I am not some young blood lacking control of his impulses," he snorted.

"_Mm, if you say so_." I hit the button that caused the water to drain.

He growled a playful warning at me and I flippantly ignored it, focusing on drying off.

"We are taxiing outside their ship. They will wonder why we have not tried to dock yet," he finally explained as he followed me out of the washroom—I left the towel behind.

I stopped short in my surprise and he brushed right past me. "What? Already?"

Pausing ahead, he nodded. "Yes. I will go request our clearance to dock, then meet you in the armory. Wear your normal hunting gear, as that is most polite."

"_Sure thing," _I said, splitting off to get my gear while he communicated. I hoped that having a few minutes to myself would give me the time I needed to mentally prepare for this next step in my integration to life with Wolf.

Halfway there, though, an inescapable curiosity consumed me. I struggled to ignore it and gave in, changing course to one of the hallways with a viewport. Maybe I'd catch a glimpse of the ship or the planet where this Clan was hanging out and see what I had to look forward to.

Sure enough, I saw the clanship outside. Most of it.

The thing was so huge I could only make out a small portion of it from the small window. My memories from when I was a teenager were a bit hazy after all this time, but I couldn't help but think that the ship was even larger than Wolf's clanship—it had to house thousands of yautja.

And I was going to have to go on it and interact with these strangers. With these aliens that spent the better part of their lives hunting and killing people like me.

I was going to have to learn how to live with them, how to be like them.

Swallowing hard, I moved away from the window and put a hand to my head, trying to force myself to calm down. If I had been nervous before, I was downright apprehensive now. I had to remind myself that I had technically already been on the ship before, that I wasn't technically a stranger.

That I would have Wolf there with me. That I'd dealt with scarier things than being social with a bunch of people I didn't know.

Somewhat calmer, I took a deep breath and continued toward the armory. This was going to be my life for a while. New experiences, new learning opportunities, and plenty of adjustment periods. I just had to take them one step at a time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Join my discord server :) The invite code is At2arpN. We can chat and fight piggies.


	7. Reveal Your Mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> Here's the next chapter! Hope you guys enjoy it :) Thanks to my patrons, Autumn, Anna, Danielle, Dark, Erin, Atira, Andrew, Lily, Kendra, Narttu, and Tonya. And, of course, thanks to my beta for being a trooper and putting up with me. Don't forget you can join my discord server with the invite code At2arpN!
> 
> ~ Kayla

I flexed my fingers, trying to make them stop shaking. Wolf and I were facing the umbilical cord attaching our ship to theirs: a tunnel that latched to our respective airlocks, it allowed us to walk between the two ships. It looked sturdy enough and didn't move or quiver when I put my weight on it. As far as I could tell just by looking, it would take maybe 15 steps to make it to the other side.

Yet, there I was, more afraid of walking across that thing than I was of facing the strangers waiting on the other side for us.

"You will be fine," Wolf assured me, patting my head. "I have crossed this more times than I can count and it has never once failed or decoupled."

"I believe you," I murmured.

He nudged me with his elbow, which I think was supposed to be comforting—and then held his hand out and said, "If you are that nervous, let me help."

A small smile tugged at my lips and I took his hand and held it to my chest. "Okay."

Creature and Critter arrived then, carrying the boxes filled with meat we'd set aside to offer the clan. They waited silently for us to lead the way across the umbilical cord, antennae twitching and mouthparts clicking. Their burdens were stacked two boxes high, but they didn't seem to be bothered by the weight at all.

"Go over the guidelines one last time," Wolf prompted, not unkindly, "then we will go."

The 'guidelines' he spoke of were more like social norms that I should know when interacting with others. They were mainly to avoid accidentally insulting someone with the wrong body language or phrasing, and he'd been tutoring me for the last thirty minutes or so.

"I do not have to accept every challenge issued. Look at everyone in the face but avoid direct eye contact. Uh . . ." I found it a little hard to concentrate, as I was still thinking about falling into space.

He waited patiently.

"Do not show my teeth for any reason," I recited.

Wolf gave me a single nod of approval. "I know you do so even to show joy but resist it as much as you can. It is the easiest way to instigate a fight."

"I understand," I muttered. "I should also try not to use English as much as possible, yes?"

"Yes," he said. "It is unlikely anyone will be wearing a mask and they will not be able to understand your language. Your Yaut'ja is serviceable, so just try your best."

Hoping my dejected sigh was enough of a confirmation for him, I steeled myself for the coming walk across the bridge. Creature and Critter were shuffling around, eager to get going so they could set down their crates.

"Come," Wolf said, urging me forward. "They are waiting for us."

After taking a deep breath, I let him lead me down the umbilical cord. The two bugs followed along, their legs clipping along rhythmically and echoing in the small tunnel. I squeezed Wolf's hand a little harder and struggled to keep my breathing even.

"They know you are coming, so your presence should not be a surprise," he said, distracting me with idle chatter.

"Great," I said through clenched teeth.

Intrusive thoughts plagued me at every second.

What if a space rock came hurtling through? What if the machine parts malfunctioned and it just popped free? What if when the door opened to the other airlock it was just space waiting for us and we got sucked out and—

The door on the other side of the umbilical cord slid open with a hiss and I rocked to a stop, clenching my eyes shut and whimpering in fright. It only took a second for me to realize that the world didn't come to an end right then and I opened my eyes to look around. No space, no sprawling through an endless void . . . Just an open door.

I hadn't thought it would open automatically at our approach like we were at a damn supermarket or something.

Wolf barely managed to contain his amused chittering as he said, "Are you well?"

Blushing, I let go of his hand and we took the last few steps. I glanced behind me to see Critter watching me with a concerned head tilt. Creature was huffing and puffing in irritation at the interruption.

"Sorry," I muttered at him.

He did not reply, but Critter gave me an encouraging click of his pincers that I appreciated.a

It took every ounce of self-control I had not to fling myself onto the floor of the other ship in my relief. I had to retain some of my dignity, after all. Instead, I kept my back straight and head high as we approached the yautja waiting to greet us outside of the airlock. Keeping Wolf in my line of sight, I watched him for any cues as to how to act.

There were three of them standing before us. Like Wolf, each was wearing a myriad of intricately-carved bones, jewelry, and trophies—most likely signifying their ranks. They were decked out in fancy armor made of bleached bone.

Wolf was wearing something similar, though his was more humble: it wasn't carved with embossed designs like the three greeting us. It just had its natural curves and divots.

These were not armors you wore to battle, but armor you wore to show off.

I only had one set of armor, the one I hunted in, and one adornment. It was made out of the queen's mandible. Wolf had given it to me before we parted ways back on Earth when I was a teenager. He'd shown up in my back yard and offered to take me away from it all . . .

If I had let him, would I be meeting these people with far more trophies to show off?

A pang of envy, and perhaps regret and shame, shot through me.

While Wolf greeted the forward-most yautja with a hardy shoulder shake, I did as he had told me during our lessons and lowered my head for a few seconds to show respect. I almost bowed at the waist like I was in Japan, but knew that wasn't the same.

I didn't miss the way the two in the back openly stared at me, muttering to one another. I did my best to ignore it, however, and remain polite.

"Greetings, venerable Sha'ktil-ar and fair guest. We are honored to have you aboard our vessel once again," said the one in the center.

He stood with distinction in front of the other two, making him look taller. Instead of the tattered fabric or worn leather of the others, he had a fur cape draped over one of his shoulders. However, what stood out the most to me was his rich russet coloring with almost deep black rosettes—almost like a leopard.

Unlike most yautja I saw, he had half of his tresses pinned back. I'd only met a handful of them, though, so I decided to assume it was a personal choice and not a rank thing.

Wolf said, "The honor is mine, elder. We appreciate your hospitality."

"And this is your human protege? She looks much healthier than when you first brought her to us," the elder observed, turning his attention to me. I went rigid.

Ushering me forward with a gentle prod, Wolf said, "Yes, this is her."

"Little sain'ja," Uzule addressed me. "I am Uzule, one of the elders here in the Clan of Deep Scars. These two behind me are my escorts."

I started to bow my head again but Wolf corrected me with a gentle click of his tusks, indicating that I was expected to actually speak. The elder waited patiently, pretending to be unaware of my awkwardness.

Taking a breath, I hoped my nerves didn't make me forget what little of the language I knew.

"It is an . . . honor to meet you," I said, inwardly cringing at my articulation and uncomfortable pause as I searched for a proper greeting. There was no pressure to give up my name, but I felt it would be polite anyway since he had offered his. "You can call me Ast'ni."

Those nameless two escorting the elder gave each other amused looks and I did my best to ignore the peanut gallery. Thankfully, Devon had given me a lot of practice in that regard. They looked pretty similar to each other—making me think they were related if not literal brothers—with tan skin and a spattering of bright red scales.

"How are you adapting?" Uzule asked me, showing no signs of irritation. Yet.

The word was foreign to me and I floundered for a heartbeat or two until I finally looked at Wolf, silently begging him to throw me a bone.

"To your new life. Adapt. Change," he grunted.

Some of the tension left my shoulders and I shifted my attention back to Uzule. "I am adapting fine, si—your honor." I kicked myself for almost saying 'sir'.

"Good. You are lucky to be with Sha'ktil-ar. He is knowledgeable and has good resources and connections," Uzule mused.

I nodded and agreed with him whole-heartedly. "Yes, it is a great privilege. I am lucky to have caught his attention."

It was beyond lucky. Without him, I would likely have been dead within an hour on that ship. If he hadn't come back for me when I called, I'd be on Earth living a life devoid of purpose and drive, stuck in a job I tolerated only to the end of seeing the xenomorphs wiped off my home planet.

Without him . . . well, I didn't want to think about it. Maybe I would have made it work with Devon, but I was happy here.

Suddenly, I realized that the atmosphere had turned awkward really quickly. The peanut gallery was barely containing their laughter and Uzule was shifting his weight, his expression making me think that he was looking for something to say.

Wolf nudged me, his mandibles pressed together in amusement, and said, "That does not mean what you meant it to."

I blinked at him, then turned crimson and choked back a string of words I couldn't quite say. Of course I would accidentally out us in the first handful of sentences I spoke to anyone.

Uzule, however, just laughed and he addressed Wolf again. "She is speaking well. I am impressed. You two may freely move about the ship as you please while you stay. There are some hot-blooded individuals, but they should know better than to inconvenience an arbitrator."

The way he let that particular note hang in the air wasn't hard to interpret—they'd be perfectly fine with inconveniencing me.

Wolf grunted and said, "It is appreciated. I have goods to offer as payment and more yet to trade. Where would you like my serfs to take the haul?"

It seemed like Uzule hadn't even noticed Creature and Critter—which was understandable, considering the big crates they were carrying and how quiet they were being. He raised his head and then motioned for one of his escorts.

"He will lead them to the stores for measuring," Uzule said.

Wolf and I moved out of the way so Creature and Critter could go on without us.

"That is all payment. They will return for the goods I wish to trade once they drop it off," Wolf said. "Would you like to discuss the warrant now or later?"

With a flourish, Uzule pulled his arm out from under the fur cape and toggled a command on his wrist computer. Wolf's lit up seconds later when the data transfer finished. A heat-based hologram projected over his sat-com and he scrolled through the alien text while I looked on with mounting interest.

"Just the one?" Wolf said.

"Yes. He disgraced himself after being unable to accept a loss he incurred and has been on the run ever since," Uzule explained.

Still reading, Wolf asked, "What sort of loss?"

"He challenged someone stronger than him thinking it might be an easy win because his opponent had only one arm. When he inevitably lost, he was so furious that he broke our rules of combat and escaped before we could punish him," answered Uzule.

Wolf deactivated his computer and said, "Then I will try to bring him back alive as the warrant requests so you may deal with him."

"It is appreciated. However, if it cannot be helped, it cannot be helped."

I was still sort of stuck on the fact that there was a yautja out there with just one arm going around handing out ass whoopings to challengers. I wished I could have seen it.

Uzule continued. "With business out of the way, you are free to do as you wish. How long do you plan on staying with us this time?"

After a moment of consideration, Wolf said, "Just as long as it takes to trade, I think. There is one thing, though."

"And what is that?"

Feeling almost like a third wheel, I could only stand silently and try to follow their quick speech. I was beginning to realize just how much everyone slowed down for my sake when they chatted with each other.

Wolf said, "There is a female from your clan that wished to meet my companion. The small, sickly one who is knowledgeable about humans. She was very informative about how to help with the recovery and gratitude is in order."

"Ah, I know of whom you speak." Uzule set his shoulders and addressed the remaining escort. "Please go and fetch her."

The escort thumped his chest with his fist and then clipped away on heavy steps.

"There. While we wait, I would like to hear the tale of your blooded mark if you would tell it, little sain'ja," Uzule said, his expression warm and curious.

The color drained from my face: how was I supposed to tell that story when my conversational Yaut'ja was barely passable? I deferred to Wolf for some help, but he offered me none. I would have kicked him in the leg to prompt him had we not been in such a well-regarded company.

"I . . . was able to kill a kiande amedha." That was their name for the xenomorphs, and it translated roughly to 'hard meat'. "It . . . I have this scar."

Twisting around, I moved my braid aside and tugged on the back of my armor a bit to reveal the gnarled patch of flesh across my shoulder blade where the alien's blood had spattered and burned me.

They love this shit, right? I couldn't help but think.

Uzule leaned in closer, but I wasn't sure if he could see it very well. I was caught quite off-guard when he reached out and touched it—I jumped back with a gasp and Wolf quickly stepped in.

"Apologies," he said while steadying me. "Humans do not like being touched without permission."

"Ah, then I am the one who should apologize."

I quickly tried to reassure everyone. "It is fine. You just took me by surprise."

He rattled in understanding and said, "Well, go on."

"I . . . I killed another one soon after, and I, uh . . ." I winced at my slip up but tried to continue on as i nothing had happened. "I, I helped kill their queen, too. And—A full uh, full hive invaded my home, many more years—solar cycles later and . . . And I killed a few of them!"

My frustration was making me sloppy and it was all I could do to keep from filling in any blanks with or completely reverting to English. A blush was creeping across my face and Wolf tried to reassure me with a gentle rumble in his chest.

Thankfully, Uzule was being a real sport about it all.

"Quite the accomplishments. Is there anything else?" the elder asked. "Besides more hard meat, I mean. They are good for new bloods, but have you hunted anything more dangerous yet?"

I had nothing to say to that—well, what I wanted to say was "what could be more dangerous?" but I knew right off the bat that it was a stupid question. My eyes lowered and my shoulders sagged. An awkward silence threatened to blanket us until Wolf spoke.

"She has been recovering from her injury. I plan to help her choose her next hunt when she is ready." He set his hand on my shoulder and I tried to relax.

Uzule squared up and made a knowing sound. "Ah, yes, though humans are dangerous prey, they can also be quite fragile at other times. Still, she is much improved from being half-dead! I hope to hear of her coming achievements under your tutelage."

Before I could express my appreciation, a bellowing cry rang out from down the hallway: "Is she still here? The human?"

Chuckling, Uzule turned and called back. "Yes, she is still here waiting for you. Please approach."

It must have been the female that wanted to see me. Her steps sounded like rain pelting a rooftop as she came toward us. I wasn't sure what to expect, as Wolf never spoke about the females much. How different were they from the others? Her voice hadn't sounded particularly dimorphic.

Oddly enough, I wondered what she'd think of me now that I wasn't a half-dead ragdoll.

The hallway didn't look long, but it had a curve to it, making it take a bit longer for me to see her before she finally came around the bend.

And she was stunning.


	8. Caught Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> I managed to post this on time, it seems. I had a really bad couple of days . . . my bearded dragon passed away unexpectantly on Thursday and that was really distressing and I've been having a hard time with that. But, luckily, the chapter didn't need a lot of extensive edits so it was easy to do on my phone while I moped around in bed. I was really excited to share this OC with y'all and low key restructured the entire fic so I could introduce her haha. Hope you guys enjoy. :)
> 
> Shoutout to my patrons: Autumn, Anna, Danielle, Dark, Erin, Atira, Andrew, Lily, Kendra, Narttu, Tonya.
> 
> ~ Kayla

The thing that stood out to me the most was her bright coloration. What I'd seen of Wolf's clan and this one so far, everyone was various earthy tones. She, however, stood out like a sore thumb in the darkness with her white, scaly skin. Even her tresses were pale.

She paused in her approach and then spotted me. Her mandibles spread with excitement and though she started toward me, she lurched to a stop.

"Elder Uzule," she greeted, then turned to Wolf. "Arbiter Sha'ktil-ar."

Both males returned her greeting with differing measures of amusement—Wolf seemed a bit more exasperated, as if his last encounter with her had really been that exhausting.

With nothing else standing in her way, that same excited countenance that she'd had when first laying eyes on me returned.

It was a bit intimidating, being regarded with anything other than muted curiosity or feigned indifference.

"You look so much better, little one!" she crowed. It was kind of like having a huge, happy dog come barreling toward you.

Looking at her, I couldn't immediately notice anything that would indicate she was "sickly", as Wolf had said. She was almost as tall as him, maybe a smidge taller. Also just like him, she looked like she could wrestle a bear and come out on top. In fact, I didn't notice anything inherently different about her at all: if I didn't already know she was female, I never would have guessed it.

Which would explain why I thought I hadn't seen any females on Wolf's ship. I probably had and just didn't realize it.

"Thank you—" Anything else I was gonna say just became a surprised grunt as she swept me up into a bear hug. I swore I heard something crack.

When she let me go, I stumbled and Wolf caught me by the arm, helping me stay upright.

"I am Mhalu. I met with Sha'ktil-ar when he brought you and I helped with some of your procedure," she said, taking one of my hands in both of hers and shaking it.

A hug, a handshake . . . she really was into human culture.

My head was spinning. Up close, I finally realized why they would consider her sickly: she wasn't merely leucistic like I originally had thought.

She did have predominantly white skin, but there were pale yellow swathes blended throughout, with some equally pale greenish-gray distortion around the edges of her head, where her tresses met with her skull. All of that mixed with the dull, gray-green eyes set into her face could only mean one thing.

She was albino.

If I hadn't already been aware that yautja blood was green and not red, I would have missed it.

That would come with a host of problems, probably—the least of which was probably being unable to leave the ship. Most albino reptiles didn't make it in the wild because they needed to be out in the sun, but it also burned them easier.

I didn't know much else about the condition, though, but it seemed to be bad enough that they largely ignored her. Though, Uzule didn't seem to mind.

"_Uh, _you can call me Ast'ni."

Her eyes narrowed and she rounded on Wolf. "Did she pick that name?"

He averted his gaze. "I have been calling her that since we met."

Frowning, I asked, "Why?"

Mhalu huffed and said, "Did he tell you what it meant?"

I shrugged. "That it is a flying creature known for its stubbornness."

"Of course," she scoffed. "It is better known for something else, though. You should tell her, Arbiter, since you chose it."

Wolf grimaced and said, "I would rather not."

Okay, now I had to hear it.

"No, Wolf, tell me," I said in a fake, sweet voice.

Uzule took that time to say, "I will leave you all to catch up, then," and left with what I saw as immediate haste.

The escort said nothing and left with him, but I could see him snickering.

Was this what they'd been so amused with when I'd introduced myself? I'd assumed it was because of my poor eloquence, but apparently, I had assumed wrong.

Both Mhalu and I waited expectantly for Wolf to explain.

When he made it apparent he would rather stand and pretend neither of us was there, Mhalu let out a snort and turned to me, saying, "An 'ast' is an extremely noisy creature from our home planet that squawks all day long."

I made an affronted sound and Wolf was quick to defend himself. "It was when we first met. You made so much noise while you were stomping around and you mouthed off quite often. You still do but I find it less annoying now, more endearing. You chose to name me after one of your native creatures so I figured it was fair!"

Disgruntled, I threw my arms up. "_Yeah, but I picked out a cool, edgy, predatory animal! You named me after some sort of annoying chicken!"_

Mhalu gave me a reassuring pat. "It is not anything like a chicken. It is fine, though, as you can pick your own name if you want. You are not stuck with it. What is your human name?"

"Nichole," I said with a pout. "_I can really just pick whatever name I want_?"

She nodded and Wolf said, "Yes. I was waiting for your language skills to improve, but I was going to let you pick your own sain'ja name if you so desired."

"_But you weren't going to tell me what my name really meant," _I huffed.

He scratched his neck in embarrassment. "I told you the good things about that creature."

Nearly bursting at the seams, Mhalu interrupted our lovers' quarrel with an exclamation. "Was that English you were speaking?"

Somewhat startled, I nodded. I hadn't even really noticed that I'd been switching back and forth again in my outrage.

I was relieved that I wouldn't have to be known as "noisy bird" for the rest of my life, at least. I would really have to think hard on this whole, "name yourself" business.

_"English was the third language I taught myself!" _Mhalu announced proudly, giving her head a smug toss.

Her accent was rough and her pacing a bit stilted, but it was actually a pretty good job.

I forgot all about Wolf's slight and brightened up considerably. "_You're pretty good at that. Wolf's only said, like, five words in English since I've met him and all of them were monosyllabic."_

_"Wolf is the name you gave him? He really did not pick an equally nice name."_

_"Right? What's that about!"_

Wolf harrumphed and said, "Since you two are getting along so well, I will go and catch up with the serfs to see if the meat is sufficient enough payment and then procure more traded goods. Will you be fine alone with this one?"

Before I could answer, Mhalu did.

"I will see to it that she is well taken care of," she assured him, pressing a closed fist to her chest. "I can give her a tour of the ship. When we are finished, I will bring her back here."

Wolf was looking at me expectantly, so I figured I should answer.

"Yes, I will be fine," I said.

"As you say. Enjoy your tour," he bade.

I waved at him as he left and then Mhalu said, "Do not be too mad at him. He was concerned about your welfare the entire time you two were here. He may have chosen an ungainly name when you met, but I do believe he means well now."

Smiling, I nodded. "Yeah, I know. I am not that mad at him."

"Good." She pressed her mandibles together in a grin and then motioned for me to follow her. "Now, come! I will show you around."

We left the airlock area and as we moved on from that set of corridors and into the ship proper, there were even more yautja out and about than I had expected. I watched them carefully, keeping out of the way and my head low. Mhalu largely ignored all of them, but gave them a wide enough berth.

Some of them stopped to stare, others offered nothing but spare glances. Chatter was picking up, but no one stopped us as we navigated the strange ship.

Within the corridors and hallways, the ceiling was comfortably low. However, as we moved into what I assumed was some kind of main hub considering how many yautja were present, it vaulted high above us. There wasn't anything special about it despite its huge, open design, though. Metal walls, metal floors, metal tables, metal chairs . . .

And it was all so dark.

Everything was a drab gray basked in the typical ambient red glow of the heat bulbs. That ambient red light was enough for me to see, but I wished there was some white light so I could make everyone out better.

Utilitarian to the last detail. The only thing that stood out to me was an embossed symbol taking up the majority of the leftmost wall—what I assumed to be the clan's symbol.

A fine mist curled about our feet to create the high humidity they preferred, and I wished I had worn my mesh suit: the heat and humidity was oppressive.

Since the ship interior wasn't much to look at, I watched the various individuals taking residence upon it. Some seemed to have jobs to attend to: moving big crates around and doling out orders to others. Most were either talking amongst each other or showing off, and a larger group by a set of tables and chairs was rough-housing.

Most didn't seem to notice us, but those that did openly stared.

I felt like I was a child again, following around my mom in an unfamiliar location. I stuck close to Mhalu, wondering if she would be enough to keep people away from me until I had a chance to adjust to so many of them being around.

"This is our central hub," Mhalu said, stopping off to the side where we wouldn't be in anyone's way. "You can get anywhere on the ship from here, the second deck where all of the socializing happens. We come to spar, train, eat, and gather."

So, my assumptions had been mostly correct. I was maybe getting the hang of this.

"I know this means nothing . . ."

Mhalu trilled in laughter and said, "You may speak English around me if you are more comfortable doing so."

_"Oh, okay. Well, I was just gonna say it's really dark in here, though I know that doesn't matter to you guys," _I said with a shrug.

She nodded knowingly. "Right, you are a light-centric species while we rely on heat. If it is any consolation, I too have some difficulty navigating my way sometimes. I do not see as well as the others . . . It is all a bit blurry."

"_Because of the albinism?"_

Head canted, she said, "The what?"

I made a vague gesture toward her and said, "_Your skin and tresses are lacking the same pigmentation that the rest of your kind have and your eyes are pale green. On Earth, people and animals with that condition are called 'albino'."_

Her eyes widened. "Are they sensitive to light and suffer vision problems?"

"_Among other things, yeah I guess."_

"_Albino," _she repeated, testing the word out. "We do not have a name for the condition itself and since we do not see in colors like you, I had no idea about the physical signs. I was always told I was of weak sight and sun-sensitive. If I want to leave the ship, I have to do it when the sun has set on a planet. It made me smaller than most females."

"_So, females are bigger than males?" _I inferred.

She nodded. "Generally, yes, though there are variations. I am on the small side not because of genetics, though, but because of my condition."

_"I see."_

Though she was about to say something else, Critter suddenly came bounding over. He slid to a stop when he realized I was with someone and nearly prostrated himself to be shorter than Mhalu, who was giving him a curious look.

"Ast'ni fine?" he chirped.

I grimaced at the name but said, "Yes. This one is showing me around. What are you doing?"

"Get trade things for master," he said.

"Who is this?" Mhalu asked, her disposition still jovial.

"One of the serfs that lives on the ship with us. His name is Critter," I said. "The other one back there pretending not to see us is Creature."

Indeed, Creature was standing nearby waiting for Critter. He was casting us only the most furtive of glances, otherwise keeping his eyes forward. All the while, he kept himself low the same way Critter was doing so it didn't look like they were trying to challenge anyone—though they easily stood three or four heads taller.

Mhalu said, "Creature and Critter! Did you decide those names?"

"_Yeah."_

"They suit them!"

Creature had enough and skittered over to grab Critter. "Must go. Master waiting."

Critter let out a noise in protest but followed along all the same. Mhalu and I watched them disappear down the corridor we'd come from and then she perked up again.

"Oh, that is the first deck. All of the airlocks are down there. Some of our members have their own ships they dock, and some are escape pods in case of emergency. Then, there is the one you and your arbiter used. The bridge is there as well, where we navigate and the elders and clan leaders gather for important meetings," she explained.

I didn't know how to respond to that so I just asked, "What other decks are there?"

"There are five in total. The third deck is where we rear the young, tend to the sick and injured, and where sleeping quarters are. The fourth deck is where our weapons, armor, and textiles are made. The fifth deck has the machinery that keeps the ship going," she recited, counting them off on her fingers.

My eyes widened. "_You have a nursery?"_

Her brows furrowed knowingly and her mandibles twitched into a smile. "Oh, yes. Would you like to see? Our clan does not allow males in unless they are visiting their own offspring, but you and I can go and see the infants."

"_I would absolutely love that," _I said in a deadpan voice.

She laughed and then showed me the way to the third deck, giving me little tidbits of information here and there along the way. I was only half paying attention, strangely fixated on the idea of seeing a little baby yautja for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Discord Invite: At2arpN


	9. Circling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> Still suffering a depressive episode. Working through it anyway. Doing my best. I'll probably go back and edit this some more later but I want to post it so I feel like I did something productive this week. Shout out to my patrons for sticking with me; Autumn, Anna, Danielle, Dark, Erin, Atira, Andrew, Lily, Kendra, Narttu, Tonya, and my beta for helping me out all the time.
> 
> ~ Kayla

There was a guard outside the nursery on the fourth deck. There were a lot less yautja out and about since most would be either on the second deck hub or in their quarters, and the guard perked up immediately as we approached.

Mhalu greeted them with a salute and said, "I am showing around our esteemed visitor, the arbiter's important companion, and she wishes to see the infants."

The guard eyed me. "You suggest that I allow a human, one of our long-time enemies, into the nursery with helpless infants?"

"They are hardly enemies, just sometimes prey. But yes, that is correct," Mhalu blithely agreed with a chipper click of her mandibles.

"I will not," the guard snorted, adjusting their grip on the speer they carried.

Now that I knew how similar males were to females, I didn't dare assume with this one. They were by far much taller than Wolf, though, perhaps by a head and a half, with fair golden skin free of any patterns or markings—just solid sandy gold. I was really enjoying the variety of colors and patterns they had.

It just sucked that they generally never saw themselves like that. Maybe that was just the shallow side of my human nature.

Would they have appreciated Mhalu more if they knew how gorgeous she was?

With a huff, Mhalu said, "She is on friendly terms with us and is a fellow female!"

_That must mean this one is female, too_, I inferred.

"And?" the guard growled.

"Humans are fiercely protective of not only their young but each others' and those of other species. Especially females! They often take in orphaned young and care for them like they were their own."

Not wholly convinced, the guard turned her suspicious glare to me.

It took me a second to realize that she expected me to make a case for myself. I swallowed my nerves and put my hand over my heart, hoping the gesture was universal.

"I only want to look. I am very curious, you see. I promise I will not cause any harm or disruption and accept any punishment if I do," I said, speaking as clearly and sincerely as possible.

Mhalu may have prepared me for this possibility.

"I accept all responsibility for her, as well," Mhalu assured the guard. "You have my word that I will not let her out of my sight."

She regarded me and Mhalu for several seconds before deflating a bit and moving her spear out of the way of the open doorway. "Fine. Do not take long, though, or I will come and remove you both by force!"

"Thank you, dear Nopr'ni. We will not loiter," Mhalu said as she grabbed my hand and dragged me inside.

Already, I could hear small sounds. There was a short, dark hallway before the room opened up. It was bright—brighter than the rest of the ship and sweltering hot. All of the light in the room was coming from dozens of heat lights lining the ceiling that were keeping the occupants of the bassinets warm. One light for each.

The sounds I'd been hearing earlier was the small, weak croaking sounds the waking babies were making. Most were asleep, but some were up and wiggling around on their backs, their little hands grasping at the air.

I paused at the entrance, almost afraid to keep going. This felt like a special place that I was intruding upon, that I had foisted myself into.

Mhalu stopped as well, her head canted to the side. "It is alright. We were given Nopr'ni's blessing to enter," she said.

"_I know_," I said quietly, matching Mhalu's pitch so we didn't disturb the sleeping ones.

Mhalu tugged on my arm and I hesitantly let her lead me toward one of the nearest bassinets. I noticed now that there were another two yautja present, standing over the same child, and I assumed they were a couple admiring their offspring. If they noticed we were there, they were doing a good job of ignoring us.

She stood me before one of the bassinets and made a gesture. "_This little male is a week old, I believe. That is seven days, yes_?" she said in English.

"_Yeah_," I replied absently, staring down at the sleeping bundle.

There were no blankets, it wasn't swaddled or wearing a little cap like I'd seen of Earth babies like when my brother was born. All the heat they needed came from above, making me sweat and tiring me out.

The little bundle was pudgy and reminded me enough of a human baby, curled up on his back and tiny fingers stuck in a fist. His head was lined with ridges where the tresses would grow, and more bumps where spikes and spines would develop.

His mandibles twitched sometimes in his sleep, along with small squawks as he dreamed of all the sights and sounds he was growing accustomed to.

"_He's cute_," I murmured, leaning on the cradle. "_A cute little future killer_."

Mhalu purred in amusement. "Yes, I suppose so."

He started to croak and squawk a bit more and I straightened up in alarm. However, he was just waking up and started to wriggle a lot more, eyes squinted half-shut. I stepped back, half-expecting him to start crying like a human child would, but all he did was continue making that same croaking noise.

Thankfully, Mhalu knew what to do. She started rocking him, swaying his bed gently back and forth. He stopped making that noise and eventually settled back down to sleep and I let out my breath in relief.

"_You seemed to know what to do_."

She nodded. "I worked here when I was younger before I dedicated myself to learning and advising."

"_Do you want kids of your own_?" I asked her.

Her expression fell somewhat and she said, "It is unlikely I will. Any suitor would be afraid that I could pass on my condition. Not only that, but I am much weaker than most and would not fare well in a fight."

"_You don't look weak. You have the same build Wolf does_."

She gave me a grateful look. "That is kind of you to say. Not being able to expose myself to the sun has made me more fragile than normal. The clan makes frequent stops to planets with the same sun as our home to ensure strong growth for young ones."

I nodded. "_And you couldn't participate_."

"Correct."

"_I'm sorry for asking_."

"No! You have not caused me offense. I have long accepted my place as the resident human expert and tolerated presence," she assured me.

I still noted a hint of sadness in her voice, but I didn't want to dwell on it.

Then she turned it back to me.

"What of you? You will not have much of an opportunity to have children while you are with your arbiter," she remarked. "Not many other humans in these reaches."

An unfamiliar tightness gripped my chest. I ignored it and shrugged. "_I never thought about it. I spent my whole life working up to being able to go with Wolf. It wasn't something I considered an option_."

Mhalu chittered thoughtfully. "Well, do not let me sway you one way or the other."

Stomping came down the hallway and a grumpy-looking Nopr'ni appeared in the doorway, spear in hand and hackles raised. When she spoke, though her voice was just south of wrath, she was quiet.

"It is time for you and the human to leave!"

I shrank back and Mhalu cowed herself in a placating manner. "Yes, of course. We were just about to go."

"I am so sure," the guard harrumphed.

Taking my arm again, Mhalu and I skirted past the guard and left.

"She is always in a bad mood," Mhalu muttered somewhat petulantly as she took me to the fourth deck, our last stop before we headed back.

I giggled. "_It's fine. I'm just glad she let us in at all. I would have been disappointed if she hadn't_."

Her countenance brightened again and before I knew it, we were on the fourth deck. It was even worse than the nursery in terms of heat, almost to the point where I couldn't go. I stuck it through, though, just long enough for Mhalu to give me the abridged version; she definitely noticed that I was struggling to keep up, struggling to catch my breath, and struggling to stay upright.

On the fourth deck was the smithy: the source of the majority of the heat. There, yautja artisans—mostly female with a few males mixed in, as Mhalu informed me—hard at work over bellows and forges.

Under normal circumstances, I would have loved to stay and watch them work. As it was, Mhalu almost had to carry me back through the ship.

Of course, that was mostly me being dramatic. I walked a lot of the way, she just made sure I didn't collapse from heatstroke while we went. Had to keep my dignity around all those badasses on the ship, naturally.

"We did not have to stay so long," Mhalu said with equal parts concern and amusement.

I waved off her worries and said, "_I wanted to see how the things were made_."

"You almost passed out."

"_Wouldn't have been the first time_."

Mhalu gave me the same kind of condescending head pat Wolf usually gave me and I pouted.

Ignoring me, she said, "That concludes the tour! I do not see your arbiter around, so shall we wait for him by your ship's airlock?"

"_That's fine. Thank you for showing me around_."

"Mhalu!" came a shout from the other side of the room.

She flinched and turned around. "Yes?"

The yautja approaching us slowed when they noticed me. "Ah, you are with that . . . human. I had a few questions to you."

"I may have answers," she responded, relaxing somewhat. To me, she added, "This is one of our younger hunters."

I nodded.

However, the hunter looked oddly uncomfortable. "I do not wish to speak to you about it in front of the human."

Mhalu gave me a sidelong glance and said, "I promised the arbiter that I would stay with his companion. Perhaps it can wait until later when our guests leave? I will be happy to spend as much time as you want to answer questions."

"It will only be a few minutes. No one will hurt her."

I gently touched Mhalu's arm to get her attention and said, "_I'll be alright. I need to sit down anyway so I'll just be over there_," then pointed at an empty table with a single chair. It seemed to be far enough away from the crowds of yautja.

She relented. "As you say. He and I will only be a moment."

After watching them leave, I went and sat down like I said and sank into the chair. I was still exhausted after trying to stick it out in the smithing area and my head was reeling from the culture shock of everything. Though I'd just woken up several hours ago, I was ready to go to bed all over again.

The sound of voices pulled me from my thoughts. I looked up, expecting Mhalu and the hunter, but only found a group of yautja sashaying toward me. It was the same group that had been rough-housing earlier, though I hadn't realized they were still around.

At first, I thought perhaps they were just coming in my general direction, but there was definitely a purpose as they approached. I sighed as they grew closer and closer.

Well, shit, I thought, wondering if I should stand to greet them or if sitting was fine.

In the end, I stood up.

It took almost every ounce of my self-control to suppress the reflex to smile politely in greeting, something that I'd done my entire life back on Earth. It was just the thing you did when you connected with a stranger—even if it was accidental, even if it was only for a second. If you looked at someone, you smiled at them.

It was harder than I expected to stop myself. I did, though.

Unsure what I was actually supposed to do, I shifted my weight from foot to foot and let my arms drop to my sides.

Wolf said the only ones who would bother me would be of similar rank or lower . . . was I supposed to nod? Shake them vigorously like he did when greeting others of similar notoriety to him?

I decided to follow their lead and did what they did.

Nothing.

"Do you think she talks?" the one in the center asked the others.

"She was babbling with Mhalu, but I think it was in a human language," another pointed out.

All four of them were similarly colored with muddy browns and lighter dappling, making it even harder to tell them apart from each other. I wondered if they were perhaps related, maybe brothers or cousins, but it could have also been possible that the ambient red glow of the ship was making already similar colors look identical.

The rightmost one jerked his head in my direction and pushed the center one toward me. "Only one way to know. Go and find out."

I started tapping my foot in irritation. "I can understand you, yes."

For a brief moment, I hoped that it would work the way it did on Earth. If someone was talking about you in a foreign language that you understood, you normally just had to confront them in that same language and they'd slink off in shame.

I wanted so badly for it to be like that there so I could avoid whatever . . . _this_ was.

That, however, was not the case. There was no shameful slinking back into obscurity. They did seem slightly taken aback, but they hid it well enough that I thought maybe I imagined it.

After a shared set of glances, the one I assumed to be the ringleader spoke up again. "You came here with that arbitrator."

It wasn't a question.

"Yes," I replied suspiciously.

Ringleader continued. "What does one have to do to earn the company of someone with that kind of reputation?"

There seemed to be some sort of implication there that I couldn't quite figure out so I told them the same thing I'd told Uzule, albeit paraphrasing. "I fought side by side with him against two hard meat hives."

Just as before, I was picking my words carefully and trying hard to pronounce them correctly to avoid giving them more things to laugh at me for.

I just wished I had the vocabulary to make it sound more harrowing. My limited grasp of the language was starting to be more frustrating than it ever had been. I had to make more of an effort to stop using English around Wolf.

The one on Ringleader's left shoved his shoulder—earning a growl as a reprimand—and said, "I told you so."

Glancing around, I tried to spot Mhalu and see if she was on her way back. Maybe she'd shoo them away for me, though I didn't think she had the kind of clout to do so. No one else was anywhere close or paying us any attention, not that I thought strangers would come and save me from a conversation I didn't want to have.

Wolf wasn't around, either. It would have been the perfect time for him to pop up, but alas. He was either waiting for us at the airlock or still bartering for goods somewhere on this deck.

Whatever. I had gotten through plenty of conversations on Earth that I didn't want to have. This one would be no different. It was nothing compared to some of the other shit I'd had to go through. I could handle some schoolyard bullies.

Finally, my desperation helped me spot Mhalu across the room. Her back was to me while she spoke with the yautja from before, but he wasn’t paying much attention to her. Most of his attention was trained on me and the group all up in my business. When he caught me looking, he quickly looked away and continued talking with my escort. I narrowed my eyes. 

_These fuckers planned this_, I realized. He’d seemed nervous, had insisted on pulling Mhalu away from me, and as soon as they left, these guys showed up. The one with Mhalu must have lost a bet or something. Just great.


	10. Praised and Abused

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> Sorry I've been gone for so long. I had an emotional breakdown and have been focusing on bringing my mind back into a state where I can work. I've been feeling better this week, at least, and I'm going on vacation at the beginning of November to go visit my mom, so hopefully, that will help too. I'm getting better, or at least working on getting better, so I hope chapters will start coming more regularly.
> 
> However, because November is NaNoWriMo, I'm probably going to work on something else during the month, probably more Grotesque revisions. I've been posting about a new story idea I have on as well! I don't know when I'll start working on that, though, I want to actually . . . plan it lmao. Normally I just wing it and then fix it in post but with this project, I want to be a bit more prepared.
> 
> Anyway, special thanks to my patrons, Autumn, Anna, Danielle, Dark, Erin, Atira, Andrew, Lily, Kendra, Narttu, and Tonya. Also, I'd thank to thank my beta for not only checking out my chapter but also checking on me. Thanks :)
> 
> OH! And before I forget, ***PLEASE RE-READ THE ENDING FOR THE LAST CHAPTER! I CHANGED IT AND THE BEGINNING OF THIS CHAPTER WILL MAKE MORE SENSE. Thanks :)
> 
> ~ Crayola

"Do not worry about them," Ringleader said, having noticed where I was looking. "That one is always asking dumb questions . . . They might be a while."

I saw that smug ass look on his face and wanted to slap it off him.

But I put all that anger behind me when I left Earth. I was cool as a fucking cucumber now. A _fucking cucumber._

"I am not worried," I said.

"You have other trophies?" another of the four asked me.

I had to take a step back—they were beginning to crowd me as if they didn't know what personal space was. They hadn't surrounded me with any sort of malicious intent, just formed a half-circle around me as if they were hanging on my words.

It was taking me a couple of extra seconds to figure out what they were saying. All of them were speaking more informally than I was used to.

"Not yet," I responded warily, especially after already having this same conversation.

While they chewed on that, I took a second to really study them. I couldn't see any visible blooded marks, so I wondered if they were young, unblooded yautja waiting to take their trials? It could have been that their marks were hidden, like mine. It was on the inside of my wrist, so you couldn't really see it unless I showed it.

Wait. I didn't have to speculate. I could just fucking ask them.

"What about you? Do any of you have trophies?" I asked.

They shared glances and then all answered in the negative.

"We will take our _chiva _soon, though," Ringleader proudly said.

"What is the hard meat like?" another asked, eagerly leaning toward me.

I didn't know how much I was supposed to tell them or how much they already knew, so I answered in a vague way. "They are quick and deadly and . . . There are many of them. I do not care for them at all and if I were to face them again it would be too soon."

"Ah, poor human," one clicked mockingly, making me frown.

"So you do not have any trophies, even from your planet?"

Dammit, I wished they would just leave. I didn't have the conversation skills to keep doing this. "I did not hunt on Earth. Not for trophies . . . I had work to do. I was injured badly when the arbiter took me, but I have been hunting for meat and will move to trophies soon."

Despite my waning patience, I was quite relieved that the conversation was at least somewhat cordial and mundane. I didn't much like their tones, but they weren't pushing me around or trying to start a fight as of yet. I could see why Wolf had reached out to this clan when he was seeking help for me. They were all so open-minded and earnest.

Honestly, it made me feel a little foolish for being so anxious and on-edge. Aware, not anxious—Wolf told me this often but I hadn't quite grasped what he meant until that moment.

Their interest and curiosity gave way to a smug sort of superiority and their posture changed. They gave me a bit more space and held themselves straighter, chests puffed up, reminding me of the peacocks from home. Whatever reverence they had before was gone. Infuriatingly enough, they even started to click their tusks together in what I had come to realize was snickering.

"And here I thought an arbitrator of his reputation would surround himself with someone . . . more accomplished." Ringleader huffed, looking down his nose at me—figuratively speaking, of course.

_Cool as a cucumber, Nichole, _I told myself.

I managed not to bare my teeth as I hissed out an incredulous, "What was that?"

They ignored me and another of the four said, "How have we not yet been chosen for our chivas when this girl has been inside two hives?"

"We should be clan leaders by now!" another agreed.

I scoffed at such an egregious display of hyperbole. "You are more likely to sprout wings and fly." It was an idiom I'd heard Wolf say once or twice.

And they heard me.

I hadn't even meant to say it aloud, but they rounded on me and stepped closer again. I held my ground and didn't waver; they still weren't attempting to surround me, and I was confident that their honor system would keep them from trying to jump me four-to-one regardless of whatever sassy remarks I could muster at their expense.

"Now that you have recovered, do you know what trophies you might seek?" sneered Ringleader.

The question caught me off-guard and I cast about for an answer, but there wasn't one. It was something we could choose? Was there a list of trophy creatures out there that I could pick out of a lineup? Why hadn't Wolf gone over all of this with me yet?

"I do not know," I said, trying not to sound meek and failing.

"You do not have a plan?"

My composure faltered and gave way to insecurity. "No, not yet. I—"

Incredulous chittering from all four of them had my face burning. "What is that arbitrator doing with you? No plan, no trophies lined up . . . You are not particularly fun to look at so you cannot just be a decoration."

"_Dude, really?" _I spat incredulously without thinking. "_You're calling _me_ ugly?"_

All four wore blank expressions.

"Did you understand any of that?"

"Not a single thing."

Frustration was starting to get the best of me and I ground my teeth, earning a remark of, "Oh, you made the human mad. She is babbling and baring her fangs."

"Her teeth are too blunt to be fangs," Ringleader grunted. He even had the audacity to reach out and take my wrist. Before I snatched it back, he said, "And she has no claws to speak of, either. How did humans manage to become such threatening targets?"

I was fuming. Luckily, a huge part of my mind knew that it was all a giant bait. Wolf had told me to keep my emotions in check, but they were pushing really hard at my buttons and I didn't have the knowledge or words to tell them off properly—and I couldn't very well punch them in the face like I had Dixon. That was going to earn me some swift retribution.

_Stay cool as a cucumber, _I chanted in my head. That cucumber sure was starting to rot, though.

"Yes, seeing a human up close is . . . Underwhelming."

"She is female, though. The males are larger and stronger, I hear."

"Then surely the arbitrator should have chosen a male as his protege?"

Ringleader stood even taller and squared up. "Perhaps I should challenge her. If I defeat her, maybe the arbitrator will take me as his apprentice instead."

"_Stop talking about me like I'm not right here!" _I snarled, drawing a few gazes.

Seconds away from declaring that Ringleader should fight me right there, another yautja approached. I snapped my head to look at them, livid and ready to lash out at anyone, but it was Wolf. The four young bloods shrank away and stopped their incessant yammering.

Seeing Wolf, who came out of nowhere, the tension melted from my shoulders, and relief filled me. Mhalu was striding up as well, the loser from before toddling after her and looking mortified.

"Greetings, young ones. I see you have met my companion," Wolf said, his even tone contradicting the irritation flashing across his features.

They deferred to him with cordial nods and paced even farther backward. "Yes, venerable arbitrator. We were hearing her tales but she had only a few."

"_More like harassing me," _I muttered.

"Yes, her journey has just begun," Wolf said, ignoring me. "She has plenty of time to create more."

I clenched my jaw and bit back a remark. I was a bit miffed at him, wondering why he hadn't helped me set up a trophy hunt yet. Why hadn't he even tried to let me pick out something to hunt if that was a thing I could do? Did he think I wasn't ready yet? I was going to have to confront him about it later.

Mhalu reached us and the tag-along stood back. "Arbiter! We were waiting for you."

He gave her a look of contempt and she shrank back. I touched his arm and shook my head at him, murmuring "_Be nice, it's not her fault."_

The ringleader saluted and said, "We will not take any more of your time."

Wolf nodded and the four of them turned and tried to walk quickly away without making it too obvious. They swept up their fifth wheel, the patsy that had distracted Mhalu, and were off. Though I couldn't hear what they were saying anymore, they started shoving each other and chattering animatedly at one another, looking back at us from time to time.

Somewhat sheepishly, Mhalu said, "I apologize, arbiter, I left her alone and—"

"_It wasn't your fault. We were tricked by a bunch of delinquents, that's all,_" I huffed.

Thankfully, Wolf agreed. "Think nothing of it. Conflict will make her mind stronger. They seemed harmless, if rude."

"_I would've fought 'em," _I muttered.

He huffed. "I know. But I did not see a reason to let it get that far. This is a relaxing visit."

Mhalu chittered happily and said, "Then, before you leave, let us share a meal! I will go fetch food and some _c'nlip _to drink. Stay here and I will be back!"

Before either of us could argue, she was gone.

Smiling, I turned to Wolf and said, "_She's really energetic."_

"Yes," he said. "Most likely because she does not leave the ship often."

"_Poor thing."_

I sat down at the table again and sank into the chair. Wolf followed suit and I struck up a conversation. "_How did the trading go?"_

"Well. We have enough parts and fuel to last a while. Did you enjoy your tour?"

Realizing then that I'd switched back to English since both Mhalu and Wolf could understand me, I tried to handle the rest in Yaut'ja. "Very much so. She showed me the . . . _babies, _no, infants."

Wolf canted his head. "They allowed you in?"

_"Yeah_, Mhalu convinced the guard," I explained.

"She can be . . . persuasive," Wolf sighed. "I trust you found that interesting?"

Nodding, I said, "I am glad that I go to see them."

"Where else did you go?"

"I visited the forge, but it was too hot for me to stay in. It is nice here, though. Was your clanship like this one?"

He looked around, tusks twitching in thought, then said, "Similar, yes. Smaller. This is a large clan from my experience. Mine was barely half the size. We had much of the same facilities, though, just in closer quarters."

"_Do you miss any of your friends or family?" _I asked in English, unsure how to phrase the question in Yaut'ja. "How do you say?"

After giving it a moment's thought, he said, "The closest way is 'do you wish your friends and family were here still', and I cannot say that I do. I regret that the incident happened and they died the way they did, but I cannot change it."

I almost reached out to squeeze his hand, but decided that such public displays of affection might be frowned upon and just held my own hands. "I think I understand how you feel. Did you have children on that ship?"

"Yes and no. Some had gone to follow their own paths, others had stayed with the clan."

My face fell. "_I'm sorry."_

However, he seemed unbothered and asked me, "Do you wish you were with your friends and family?"

Staring at the tabletop, I shrugged. "I . . . _miss them, _but I would not say that I wish I was with them, or they with me. It is an . . . ache in my chest. A, _uh, sadness. _It comes and goes. I do not regret my decision to come with you, though. I never have."

Mhalu made her reappearance then, expertly carrying a few metal cups. Behind her was the young blood from before, carrying the plates. He looked even more mortified than he had before and I wondered how badly she had reamed his ass for pulling that stunt. I snickered at the mental image of her berating this poor guy.

"I am back!" she announced, handing each of us a cup and then sitting down.

The young blood carefully put the plates down and then deferred to Mhalu, who shooed him away. He scampered off and I watched him reunite with his group. They immediately started bullying him over the whole situation and then disappeared down the hall.

"Thank you," I said, pulling my plate closer to me and then eying the liquid in my cup. "What did you call this drink?"

_"C'lnip!"_ she responded.

"It is an intoxicating beverage," Wolf provided.

_"Like alcohol from Earth,"_ I said.

Mhalu gave my shoulder a pat. "Do not worry, I diluted yours and added sweet juices from fruit to make it more palatable. Drinking it pure like us might be a bit . . . much."

I stared at the cup, then at the plate of food—we all had meat, but mine was cooked. I hadn't expected anything less from the human expert—but there was just one minor detail that everyone seemed to be overlooking. In fact, it had entirely slipped my mind, as well.

"_So, uh, how am I supposed to eat this?" _I said, tapping the respirator currently helping me breathe. It took up the entire bottom half of my face. It was hard to miss, though, because it was lightweight and didn't retain heat. It wasn't meant to hide my face, designed more to feel and be invisible, so it would be easy for them to forget it was there when they couldn't see it, and it just looked like my normal face. Well, the infrared version of my face.

They gave me a long look, then Wolf laughed and Mhalu groaned.

"Oh, I had forgotten you had that on," Mhalu whined. "You cannot take that off! Our air will kill you in minutes."

I giggled and said, "It is fine. I forgot I was wearing it, too."

Wolf stopped laughing long enough to stand and said, "We can eat on our ship. Mhalu, please feel welcome to come and join us."

"Then, I will," she agreed, following us to Wolf's ship.

No—to _our _ship, just like he had said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget! I have a discord server you can join! Discord Invite: At2arpN


	11. Ready

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> Sorry for the long wait. I took November (national novel writing month) to do some other projects and visited family out of state. Then the holiday blitz happened and I've been exhausted after work more often than not. A lot's been going on, but I managed to get some writing done I'd been putting off and now I'm back and ready to revisit Nichole and Wolf! Thank you guys for being so patient and understanding :) I'll have the next chapter up in a jiff!
> 
> Special thanks to my patrons: Autumn, Annabelle, Daniel, Atira, Andrew, Lily, Kendra, Narttu, DarkLycan! Thanks for hanging in there!
> 
> Don't forget! I have a discord server you can join! Invite: At2arpN
> 
> ~ Kayla

I was in bed alone, naked, and unsure of how I even fucking got there.

And my head was killing me.

Sitting up, I groaned and rubbed my temples, eyes shut tight. Suddenly, I was glad that the ship was so dark all the time: the light would have just made everything worse.

"Wolf?" I yawned, looking around in the dark bedroom.

Nowhere. No answer. I sighed and climbed out of the warm bed into the relatively colder room. That discomfort didn't last long, though, as I headed out into the hallway where it was warm again. Even though everything was a bit fuzzy, I could at least figure out that I'd had a bit too much to drink after we left the clanship to have our meal. Mhalu must have kept bringing more drinks, or maybe made them on the ship . . .

The fruit juice she had added to the _c'lnip_ had just made it too delicious and I couldn't stop drinking it. We were having so much fun talking, though I couldn't for the life of me remember what exactly we'd talked about.

"Wolf!" I croaked, peeking into a random room. "Mhalu?"

There probably wasn't a reason for her to be on our ship anymore, but I figured humans crashed at their friends' places during a binge, so maybe these aliens did it too.

No one answered me, though.

Well, neither of the two I called did, anyway.

"Ast'ni," Critter said, poking his head out from an adjacent room to the one I'd just looked in. He was hanging from the ceiling for whatever reason he did that.

"Critter," I greeted him in kind. "Do you know where Wolf is?"

"On ship," he replied cheekily, preening his antennae.

I put my hands on my hips and huffed. "_You're a regular comedian_. Think you are funny?"

He chittered with glee and I sighed. "_Okay, funny guy_. Where on the ship is Wolf?"

"Me not know."

Rolling my eyes, I made a gesture at him and said, "I have my eyes on you."

Critter whimpered and hid farther behind the open door.

I made the 'watching you' gesture again and took my leave. His strange insect giggling echoed behind me and let me know he realized that I was teasing. Would have made me feel bad if he thought I was actually cross with him.

Yawning, I rubbed my eyes. My head was throbbing, but there wasn't anything to be done about it. No space Aspirin.

"Wo-o-lf!" I whined, wincing when the sound of my voice made my head hurt even more. "Where did you go-o?"

No answer.

I gave up on my whiny act and just quietly moped through the ship. The whole time, I'd been making my way toward the bridge. That was where he tended to hang out the most, after all.

Well . . . Besides the kehrite. Or the armory.

Okay, so he hung out in a lot of places. The bridge made the most sense because of his contract. He would need a course, a heading, a lead.

He'd find all of that on the bridge.

It wasn't often that I went up to the bridge, mostly because I didn't need to. I knew where it was, though, so I easily navigated the corridors.

The whole ship was technically one "floor" with an underbelly where all the machinery was, but the bridge was up a level at the front of the ship. It also had the biggest window in the whole thing, which was the other reason why I didn't go there much—I didn't want to stare into that endless void any more than I had to.

Windows were basically useless because of the way yautja vision worked, but the ship design was not originally theirs. They tended to adopt technology from others, though there were innovative clans that made their own shit.

Wolf had bought his ship second-hand from a clan that took it from a planet they were "occupying", as they put it. A planet they visited sometimes, taking their shit as a tithe of sorts.

It was a real mobster's outfit—it was all in exchange for "protection". From what, they never really said, but if memory served what they really meant was "hand over the goods and we won't burn the place down".

The in'qua (Creature and Critter's race), were just collateral. They were a nomadic race that often formed symbiotic relationships with other races, offering manpower and labor in exchange for shelter and work. Creature and Critter just happened to have already been signed on with the ship when it had been procured, and they had stayed when Wolf became the new owner.

Just as I thought, he was on the bridge slaving away at the computers and consoles. He was sitting in what I called the captain's chair and if he noticed I came in, he didn't acknowledge me.

"Here you are," I said, coming over to sit atop the armrest of his seat.

He glanced at me. "Here I am. Are you feeling well?"

I grimaced and answered, "My head hurts, but I am fine. We left?"

The window outside was empty. No giant clanship, no planet, nothing. Just space and distant stars and galaxies swirling in the vast universe.

"Yes, while you slept."

My expression fell and my heart sank. "_I didn't get to say bye to Mhalu_."

Wolf finally looked up from his work after hearing my tone and faced me properly. "But you did. You said your farewells before I brought you to bed."

"_I don't remember,_" I groaned.

Actually, I kind of vaguely remembered. It was the same way you half-remembered a dream that you woke up from, unable to recall anything but the most basic of beats. I could kind of picture it in my head—me, tucked under Wolf's arm like a sack of potatoes, giggling the whole time while Mhalu walked through the tunnel to her ship and I waved.

"Well, we will return once I find the target and you can see her again. I am glad you made a friend," Wolf remarked, returning to what he was doing.

Leaving it at that, I watched what he was doing for a few seconds. There was a holographic display spread across the window in front of us. The glyphs and text were well beyond my comprehension: I could kind of speak the language but I was entirely illiterate.

"Have you found anything?" I asked after a span of silence.

He lounged in his chair and said, "He took a small excursion ship. The leaders gave me its serial and I have been trying to track it down. I have picked up faint traces of its signature on a planet in another system. We will go there and I will see if he is there."

"If he is not?" I asked, trying to make sense of the readings he was looking at, knowing full well it was futile.

"Then I will see if he left any clues behind and go from there. If he is there, I will find him, capture him, and we will return to the clan," Wolf explained.

I let a moment of quiet lapse, then carefully asked, "Anything I can do to help?"

"No," he growled. "You are not ready to fight a yautja who would kill you."

Arms crossed over my chest, I huffed. "Then what am I to do while you . . . _uh, play detective_?"

Wolf gave that a little thought and for a moment, I hoped that he'd tell me I could find something to trophy hunt. However, all he said was, "There will be good creatures to hunt for meat or fur."

Disappointing!

"I am ready to do a real hunt," I insisted.

Wolf snorted. "That is real hunting."

"You know what I mean."

He idly tapped at the console before replying. "No. Not yet. You have more bad habits to unlearn."

"Like what?" I demanded.

"You need to be more cautious."

"I am always cautious."

He made a derisive sound.

"I am!" I yelped. "Mostly."

Wolf tapped my forehead with his knuckles. "You do not think when it is important and think too much when you do not need to. When you can prove to me that you can act without impulse, then I will let you hunt for a trophy."

I pushed his hand away. "I never act without impulse. I am being brave, like you."

"Ah, little one, bravery and stupidity are sometimes interchangeable. Unfortunately, you lean toward stupidity."

I glared daggers at him. "That is untrue!"

He laughed and patted me. "Lean toward, yes, but there are times your courage shines. You still need more training, though."

Not willing to let it go, I pressed the issue, falling back into English in my impassioned state. "_I don't have to hunt something big, it could just be a small trophy! Just something that'll leverage me above the average newly blooded and give me something to talk about, something that_ . . ."

Wolf had looked ready to refute, but his curiosity got the better of him. "That what?"

"_That . . . doesn't reflect poorly on your choice to have me_."

His mandibles clicked sympathetically and he tugged me toward him. "It seems those young bloods said some things that stung."

"Yes," I said, trying not to pout. "_But it's not just them, I want to hunt something. You've been teaching me and teaching me . . . I don't have to do something big and flashy. Surely I should be able to do something a step above the xenomorphs_."

Wolf remained silent, listening intently and deep in thought.

"Anything will be a cake-walk compared to them," I finished, hoping that something I said resonated with him. Anything.

"Perhaps," he said, "you are ready. But I am not."

"What do you mean?"

"Fear is a part of you humans. It is what makes you capable of great things. For us, it is shameful. We do not fear, we approach everything knowing it could be our last breaths we draw and take strength from that," he explained. "We do not get scared."

I didn't understand where he was going, but I nodded anyway.

For a moment, though, he was quiet and simply stared at the text still scrawled up on the window. I almost thought he was waiting for me to respond, but then I realized it: the way his claws idly tapped, the faint sound of his mandibles fidgeting against his mask . . . Whatever he wanted to say, he was having a hell of a time admitting it.

Hoping to reassure him, or maybe bring him back from wherever he was, I gently placed my hand on his shoulder. I wish I could have better read his face, but I didn't dare ask him to take his mask off. Not when he was already feeling vulnerable.

That probably wasn't something he was used to feeling.

He growled softly, kept his gaze averted, and said, "But I was that night."

". . . What?"

"Pulling that thing off of you, watching you panic, thinking about what came next . . ."

My chest tightened. He was talking about the night the hybrid had gotten me. I hadn't realized how it had impacted him. I hadn't thought much about it. I guess I assumed he'd handled it with the same amount of poise and rationality he always did.

His claws tapped harder on his armrest. "Even after your procedure had been successful, your rehabilitation had been on a razor's edge for so long. If Mhalu hadn't given me the information, I doubt that I alone would have been able to keep you alive."

Finally, he looked at me. I couldn't take it anymore, so I raised my hands toward his mask, hesitating long enough to seek his consent. He nodded and allowed me to remove his mask. I set it on my lap and used it to keep my idle hands busy.

"Why did you?" I asked quietly. "Why . . . me?"

As if unsure, he studied the ceiling like he might find the answer up there.

"Perhaps because I had been glad to receive your call. I was invested in how you might have grown since I had last seen you, and then eager to see how you would continue to grow under my watch."

Wolf paused and I waited, knowing he had more to say.

"Without realizing, you had grown on me more than I had thought. And then there you were, in so much pain. I am not eager to see you like that again," he finished.

I smiled slightly to myself-not out of happiness, but I was rueful. He was doing all of this out of true concern, not because my abilities weren't there yet. I was touched, I was a bit frustrated, but my heartfelt lighter.

Setting his mask aside, I sought to comfort both of us and embraced him. He seemed caught off guard at first but soon gave me a warm squeeze.

"_I'm okay now. I feel great, and I feel confident. Please, let me try,_" I murmured.

Somewhat reluctantly, he let me go and heaved a sigh. "I understand. Once I have finished my business on this planet, I will supervise your first trophy hunt. If I do not, what was the point of me taking you in the first place?"

Before I could get too excited, he cut off anything I was going to say.

"You must wait, though. Until I am done with seeking my target, you are to remain close to the ship," he insisted.

I nodded. "Yes."

"You can explore and do what you like, but keep the landing area within your sight," he continued. "This is a criminal I'm hunting, not a beast. The serfs can help if he shows up so long as you are close."

I almost protested but decided not to. Instead, I said, "You know, I was trained on Earth to confront dangerous criminals."

Wolf chuckled. "Yes, other human criminals. Dealing with ours will be a bit difficult. But, perhaps one day you will be able to help."

"Yes!"

"Then," he added, "once I have completed my work, we can find you a trophy. One that we can hunt together."

"Together?"

He nodded. "Yes. That way, I can be close and see how far you have come. After that, we can talk about your own solo trophy. Is that fair?"

"More than fair," I quickly agreed.

His tusks clicked in bemusement and he swiveled in his chair to slave away at the console again. "Good. Now, go and entertain yourself. I must work."

Despite the crisp tone, I knew he wasn't being mean. It had probably taken a lot of emotional energy for him to open up like that and he wanted to be alone. I could relate, so I bid him good-bye and stepped out into the hallway. As the door slid shut, I lingered for a moment and smiled to myself. A weight had been lifted, at last, giving me a bit more room to breathe.


	12. Armor Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> I'm getting back in the groove of posting once a week. I hope I can keep up the pace. Please keep rooting for me cuz lord knows I need all the motivation I can get lmao. I do a lot of work on my phone nowadays cuz I just don't have a lot of energy to sit at my computer most of the time, but hey if it works it works, right? Hopefully, it's not too obvious haha.
> 
> Special thanks to my patrons: Autumn, Annabelle, Daniel, Atira, Andrew, Lily, Kendra, Narttu, DarkLycan! Thanks for hanging in there! Let me know if you want to become a patron and I'll throw a link your way. :) I'm going to start work on the patron-only project once again so you'll have that to look forward to!
> 
> Don't forget! I have a discord server you can join! Invite: At2arpN
> 
> ~ Kayla

When it came down to the wire and we were almost ready to go into orbit around our destination, I retreated to our room and pulled all my belongings out from under the bed: everything I'd had when Wolf took me.

My backpack was in good condition still, considering I never took it anywhere. Inside, there were carefully-folded pictures of my family and one with me and Devon. He'd taken it by surprise when we first became partners, so it wasn't the most flattering picture of me. His arm was around my shoulder, smiling that happy-go-lucky grin I'd gotten used to.

I tried not to look at any of them too long lest I become weepy, but just being able to hold and glance at them made me less homesick.

Setting the photos aside, I fished my phone out from an inner pocket and turned it on to listen to some music and play my offline puzzle games. They were a great way to settle my nerves and fill up some of the time spent just drifting in space with nothing to do. Right now, I needed it to do both.

Sometimes I wished I could make calls, but I knew it was better that I couldn't.

A clean cut.

Being able to use my phone to do anything at all made me feel a little normal. Something familiar in this time when nothing else was. I whittled away hours. I also used the notepad function to keep track of things—my thoughts, my experiences, and important things Wolf told me . . . it was like a journal that helped me stay sane.

Wolf called me over the intercom when we reached the planet, so I stowed all my things back in the bag and shoved it under the bed. All except my phone, since I'd eaten up the battery. I took that with me so I could charge it. One of the trade-offs for being able to charge it at all was the fact that it took forever to do so.

We met in the hallway as I was heading for the bridge.

"Are we landing?" I asked him.

"Soon. We should both eat before we do. I will call Critter for you."

"Not necessary," I said proudly. "He taught me. _I just need to charge my phone."_

Nodding, Wolf let me pass. It didn't take long for me to plug my phone in and then head to the kitchen area. In the time it took, Wolf had already devoured half a slab of meat.

I raided the stockpile of frozen meat in cold storage and pulled out a cut of steak. I would have to wait for it to thaw, but the warming plate in the back would have it done in only a few minutes. I just had to be careful not to forget about it. Wolf, of course, ate his raw, so it wasn't long before he was completely finished.

"I will be on the bridge if you need me," Wolf announced before he left. He wasn't normally this aloof, but I just assumed he was getting in the zone for his job.

Okay, he was pretty aloof under normal circumstances, too. This just hit a bit differently, like he was distracted. I had only seen him work once before: when he was in Gunnison with me. I was still learning all his habits and mannerisms.

And I hoped I would continue to learn more and more about him.

_"Alright!" _I called over my shoulder. I would ask him later when it wouldn't bother him.

It was just one edgy criminal mad that he lost a duel. I wouldn't worry about him too much but I didn't want to throw him off his game, either. That's why I agreed to his terms, too. The last thing he needed was to worry about me.

The kitchen wasn't really a kitchen—not like on Earth. It had one counter with cabinets below. The only tools I had were a knife, something similar to a cast-iron pot, and a hot plate. Keeping it simple made it easy, at least.

I could cook in the field, too. I had to figure most of it out on my own, though. Since Wolf ate most food raw, it was up to me to make sure things were cooked to my standards, which was at least something I'd learned on Earth.

But, like, with a stove. And pots and pans galore.

My cooking experience on Earth hadn't been much to write home about, but I'd picked up a few things living alone in my apartment.

Sure, most of my food had come out of a box. I also spent a lot of time watching cooking shows on top of my regular programs, though, so I had the general idea down.

I just had to sort of figure out how to apply that to cooking with alien food and tools . . .

Thankfully, it wasn't too overwhelming. There were no seasonings, so I couldn't fuck that up. All I had to do was not burn my shit and avoid undercooking it and I was golden.

Wolf had informed me that there was quite a bit I could eat raw, but I just really did not want to risk it. Not when it came to meat, at least: raw meat wasn't a joke on Earth. I didn't care if it made me look like a damn primadonna, I wasn't getting space food poisoning.

I cooked and ate the bland meat with a side of veggies that I found in the back of the cold storage. It was a root, like potatoes and carrots that tasted like dirt. I needed to eat my food groups, though.

However, I was seriously craving some damn McDonald's—or any junk food, really—but the sugar in the fruits was tiding me over. It was probably just the withdrawal talking.

Eventually, I'd move past my trans fat and sugar addiction.

With my meal finished, I was still feeling a little empty so I started snacking on some seeds Critter left out. They were edible in the same way sunflower seeds were, with an outer shell that needed to be peeled. They kind of tasted like candy corn, which made it kind of difficult to eat a lot of them.

I was really going at them, though, probably trying to eat my anxiety away.

Around that time, Wolf returned.

"Are you finished? We will be landing soon," he said.

"Yes. How long?"

"Not long now."

I inwardly groaned. Yautja didn't keep track of time with minutes or hours like humans, so it was hard getting any sort of meaningful answer out of him when it came to that. I should have learned to stop asking a long time ago but old habits die hard.

Wolf canted his head, his tusks clicking inquisitively. "You remember what I said?"

"Yes," I sighed. "Only hunt for meat or explore, and stay within sight of the ship. I know."

He touched my shoulder and said, "I know it is frustrating, but as soon as I have finished my work we will get you a trophy."

Smiling, I leaned against his touch. Though I didn't know how he did it, just having him close by put me at ease, made me feel like I was capable of anything.

"Thanks. I look forward to it."

He nodded in understanding. "We will talk more about it later. For now, I must prepare. I will set out at landfall."

"Then I shall do the same." I stood and followed him to the armory.

There were various pieces of armor and other apparel items within that we could choose from for particular missions, mounted on the walls or stored within cupboards. I really only had the one set, but Wolf had a few and a couple dozen masks, though he seemed to only use one of them as far as I had seen.

Most of his were in various states of disrepair—dents and scratches, chips and stains. All from previous battles. He still had his battered armor from the crash mounted up on the wall. The set that he wore the most was much shinier than the rest, made of a reflective blue-hued metal instead of the matte gray of the others.

All I had was a full cuirass with separate, flat shoulder pauldrons. Wolf only had one pauldron that acted as a mount for his plasma caster—I didn't need one because I just used a handheld that had a holster at my ankle.

Wolf was already at work putting his gear on. It all fit so perfectly, as if it was tailored specifically for the curve of every muscle and shape of every limb, crafted efficiently to move with each flex and twist and turn. I realized I was staring and looked away, examining the ornate and decorative armor that he wore to visit Mhalu's clan.

Figuring I should stop gawking, I took my suit up from its shapeless mannequin and started to dress. He suddenly batted my hands away, startling the shit out of me, and began fastening the straps and buckles himself.

Though there wasn't much conviction behind my words, I protested his intervention. _"I can do it myself, you know."_

"I know," he purred, slightly amused by my reaction.

I was aware of every slight touch from his fingers brushing my skin as he worked the straps, as he tightened the buckles. A blush crept up my skin and I tried to remember what we were supposed to be doing.

For a moment, I stared thoughtfully at the various weapons available, then tried to be slick. "What should I bring?"

"That is for you to decide," he quipped.

I huffed but had mostly expected that response. It was fine, though. I knew most of the basic necessities, then there were more unique weapons that could be swapped out based on preference.

While Wolf started gathering his own things, I pulled down a pack and went through my options. There was my own gauntlet that held my wrist blades—or _dah'kte_ as they called them—adjusted and customized to fit my scrawny human arm.

I pulled it off its mount and loaded a few metallic arrowheads in the slot. I also attached a netgun to it. It was already loaded with four razor nets, but I put a few extras in my pack along with more arrowheads.

"Can you hand that to me?" I asked Wolf, indicating to a familiar, serrated sword. It was closer to him than it was to me.

It was the very same one he'd lent me on his crashed ship all those years ago. My first weapon. It had somewhat become a bit of a comfort to me. Wolf plucked it from the wall and gave it to me. He also handed me the magnetic strip that I could wear on my back so I could keep it handy.

"Thank you," I chirped. He huffed an acknowledgment.

When I was satisfied that I had mostly everything I needed, I had Wolf help me set up my medkit. I still wasn't versed in what exactly all the different medicines did. Plus, their medicine tended to really kick my ass. I didn't want to risk fucking it up and accidentally overdosing.

Before we left, I pointed at a plasma pistol and asked, "Can I have that?"

He gave it some consideration, then nodded and handed it over. "Do you remember how to use it?" he teased.

I scoffed. I had been practicing my melee weapons for a while, but it was sort of like riding a bike. _"I know how to fire a gun."_

"It is not quite the same as the ones you are used to on your planet," he reminded me.

"No, I know. It runs on a charge and after so many uses I have to let it cool off before it can recharge," I recited.

Wolf seemed satisfied. "That is correct. And the casters?"

"Those have a limited amount of charges," I said, wracking my brain. "And after a while, it becomes useless until you bring it back to the ship for manual recharge."

He shook me by the shoulder and rumbled proudly. "Yes, that is right."

I much preferred the pistol to the caster because it was more like using the sidearms I was trained to use. The shoulder-mounted casters were ungainly and cumbersome—not to mention not very user-friendly.

Feeling smug, I looked over my gear one last time. Everything I could think of was on my person, so I was satisfied.

"Are you ready?" Wolf asked, a hint of concern behind his words.

I nodded, holding my mask under my arm. "Yes."

Nodding, Wolf finished packing his own gear and then headed for the door. "We are orbiting currently, so I will find somewhere to land now."

"_I'll come with you."_

Maybe I was a bit too quick to offer, but I hated landing even more than I hated just floating. Some people had an irrational fear of spiders or snakes . . . I had an irrational fear of space in general. The landing was always rough.

Wolf had no reason to protest, though, so we went to the bridge together and I hung out next to him, inspecting the planet as it drew closer. There wasn't much I'd retained from my school career about the solar system, but it looked like a primary planet—one made out of rock like Earth.

Most of it was land, unlike my home planet. There were only a few patches of large bodies of water, a rich reddish-purple color instead of the blue I was used to—so much so that it almost looked poisonous. The land itself was a typical grayish color with a spattering of what I assumed was yellow forests.

A sense of giddy excitement welled up within me. I never knew what I was going to expect on a new planet and I always looked forward to exploring. It made me feel like a damn tourist sometimes, but I kind of was.

"This is the third moon and where we will be landing," Wolf clarified, overriding the autopilot so he could steer it himself. "The planet is largely inhospitable."

"_Really?" _I remarked, more to myself than to him.

He chuckled and pointed. "That is the moon. This is the planet." As he turned the ship, a giant mass of angry maroon gas came into view.

The planet's surface writhed as if it were made of swarming insects and flashes of lightning lit up just beneath the dark gas. So, it was actually a gas giant like Jupiter instead of a primary planet like Earth. I'd been looking at the damn moon the whole time.

"Oh." I didn't have any other words to express my surprise.

His point made, he guided us down toward the surface and I braced myself for that increasingly familiar turbulence that was re-entry.

"You will need to keep your mask on. The atmosphere is extremely toxic to anything that is not from the planet. Even the serfs will need respiratory aid if they wish to leave the ship," he explained.

That was a bit shocking since they hadn't needed any sort of respirator on any of the other planets we'd stopped on. Granted, I'd only been to a grand total of two planets so far with most of our stops being clanships, but still.

I gripped the edge of Wolf's seat as the ship was buffeted by the moon's thick atmosphere. Flames tinged the edges of the huge window. Wolf was unbothered, however, and I tried to borrow some of his confidence.

Still, I couldn't help but feel like we were about to be shattered and engulfed by flames.

None of that happened, though. We successfully broke through and fell below the red-hued clouds, which were wispy and almost ethereal. The sky itself was an odd purple color.

I relaxed now that we had passed through the atmosphere and found myself caught up in the sight-seeing while Wolf looked for a flat, concealed area to land his ship. He very well could have landed it just about anywhere, but he tried not to make too much of an impact on the local environment.

That was technically par for the course—it was bad form to make it easy for your presence to be known, whether or not there was intelligent, civilized life on a planet.

We were hovering over a rocky, forested biome. The foliage was yellow, reminding me of a field of sunflowers. Wolf found a clearing amongst a grove of trees and he lightly navigated the ship down.

It was a tight fit and we may have ended up shaving off some branches, but it was going to have to be good enough.

My heart was thudding away inside my chest and I did one last check of my gear. Every strap was tightened. Every weapon was in an easily-accessible place. Supplies were retrieved from the kitchen, tucked away, and secured. Mask on. Nerves and anxiety were spiked—but so too was my excitement. I was jittery, I was pumped. I was ready.

"You remember how to call me?" Wolf asked as we watched the ship's hatch lower.

I nodded and glanced at my wrist computer. "Yes, but I will not need to."

"That is a good attitude."


	13. Sights are Set

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> Here's the next chapter, right on time!
> 
> In other news, I got a puppy! :D If you follow me on twitter or are in the discord channel, I have pictures up! No set name right now, but we are calling him Dutch so far. Might change until we find one we really like haha.
> 
> Special thanks to my patrons: Autumn, Annabelle, Daniel, Atira, Andrew, Lily, Kendra, Narttu, DarkLycan! And always to Citrine for being such a helpful helperton!
> 
> ~ Kayla

Wolf waited for me at the bottom of the loading ramp. I hesitated a moment before taking that step onto the ground. Once I was clear, he raised the ramp.

Instead of the springy, loamy soil I was used to in the forests where I grew up, the floor here was mostly hard rock beneath my feet. The gravity was a bit lighter, making me feel like I had a bit more bounce in my step. I looked around, taking in the surroundings.

The trees that surrounded us were more like giant weeds, springing up out of the ground and looming several hundred feet taller than us. Instead of a singular trunk, they had three or four stalks that grew up out of the ground, the tops fanning out like giant yellow fan palms. The stalks themselves were a slightly darker yellow than the palms.

Sighing, I said, "_I wish you could see these places the way I do. It's breathtaking."_

Wolf nodded. "If you say, I believe it. I will be heading out now."

"I wish you a successful hunt," I responded.

He activated his stealth and I paused, staring at the spot where he used to be, then did the same. I took one more moment to look around and really soak in the sights. I thought it might be nice if I had pre-charged my phone so I could take some pictures.

If the air was as toxic as Wolf said it was, it was probably better that I left it on the ship. I'd take some pictures out the window later.

I took a deep breath only to inhale the sterile, manufactured air of my filter. Ah, how I missed breathing in the fresh air of home.

Shaking off the nostalgia, I wandered into the trees. Thanks to their many stalks, the plants were easy to climb and close enough together that I could channel my inner ninja and hop from stalk to stalk.

There had been the question of whether or not they could hold my weight, but they were sturdier than they looked. The plants barely moved at all when I clambered up one.

After putting some distance between me and the ship, I scanned the area with a few different vision modes, but I couldn't find anything interesting to examine. There had to be life somewhere around, though. Maybe if I moved away from the ship some more, I'd find something. Our landing had probably been frightening for any little critters.

All I had to do was make sure I kept the ship in sight. Well, the area where it had landed, anyway. Wolf had since cloaked the ship and I couldn't see it with the naked eye anymore. Its position was on my map, though, and I could track it with just a few clicks.

I would explore a bit, maybe a day at most, then return to the ship for an update.

Despite the fact that I had no real way to track time and had no idea how long the days were, I felt like I'd been wandering around for hours before I found the first sign of life—some small endemic life.

They were tiny, moldy-green rodent creatures with six legs and rat-like tails with blunt faces. I watched them a bit, though they were hard to keep track of because they were so small. They seemed to live underground and ate plants.

Definitely prey animals: all of them ran at the first clue that I was stalking around.

There were also a couple of different flying creatures that I spotted. They hung out at the very tops of the trees and were brightly colored, like the tropical birds at home. Unlike birds, though, they had four wings and a pair of legs. Six limbs seemed to be the norm on this planet.

The bird things also had blunt faces and sharp teeth. When I approached them outside of stealth, they actually attacked me and I had to shoo them away with some slaps from the flat side of my blade before they fucked off.

I made a note to find them later and have an alien chicken dinner. They were big enough for at least one meal, after all.

After playing around with the local animals, I found my first large creature tracks. I started getting ideas about hunting things but tried to keep myself in check. It would be okay to hunt a couple of creatures for meat, but anything bigger than what I was used to might end up breaking Wolf's rule, even if it was a prey animal.

They were large footprints in the ground, depressing the dirt between the slabs of stone that made up much of the forest floor. Most of them were partials, but I could clearly make some of them out. It looked like they had to weigh close to a ton with the sheer size of them.

The tracks were heading north of the ship. I checked my holographic map and decided the ship was still close enough that it was fine if I wandered further. There were still cold-blooded criminals lurking on the planet, after all. If they were as bad as Wolf said, I wanted to be able to easily sprint back to the ship in a timely manner.

I climbed up a tree just to make sure, and the landing site was barely visible thanks to a single broken stalk from one of the nearby trees.

Yes, I could spare a little more time and distance.

From what Wolf had taught me, there was likely more than one animal that had made this trail, maybe a large group. The scattered tracks and grouping made that likely. Probably not predators, then.

As I followed the tracks, I kept tabs on how far I was going. Alert, not anxious. It would be fine if I wandered a greater distance. Just a little. Push those boundaries but don't break them.

When I did locate the creatures, they were grazing in an open field at the bottom of a ravine. The creatures were fat and squat, kind of reminding me of elephants except without the trunk, and their backs were covered in fine quills.

_Fuck, I really should have brought my phone._

Oh well. If after I came back and Wolf was still out, I'd take my phone on another outing and nab some photos.

With nothing else to do, I decided to watch them for a while and maybe learn about how the animals here interacted with their environment. I made myself comfortable and began observations until the sun set.

When night did finally come, the quillephants (as I decided to call the quill-covered grazers I'd been following around) settled in. They nested as a group under a set of tree-weeds growing close together. Following them had been rather uneventful: they spent a lot of time eating grass and shrubs, then drank from a nasty-looking pond of water.

There were a few babies, though, so I had a good time watching them frolic and play.

I was a little salty that the avian creatures left them alone. Several times the herd had crossed by a tree full of those birds and they did nothing. What had been their beef with me?

Whatever. I had to find somewhere to rest for the night.

Over the course of the day, I'd managed to keep my snacking to a minimum and only drank water from my flask in moderation. I still had enough to get me through the next day, especially if I hunted.

The only issue was that I had to hold my breath long enough to put food in my mouth. I couldn't keep my mask off too long. This planet really was toxic. I wasn't even sure I wanted to eat anything that lived on it. I would just have to go to the ship sometime tomorrow with a dead bird and maybe some samples of local flora and ask Critter if any of it was edible.

Thinking about it, I decided I wasn't sleepy yet. I would explore some more and see what nocturnal creatures were out and about.

That's what my night vision was for!

A deep, thunderous rumbling stopped me in my tracks. I waited to see if it was an earthquake, but the ground was just barely vibrating.

The quillephants started lowing in the distance and I got the distinct feeling that they were on the move.

I scanned the area, flicking between the various vision settings of my mask to try to decide what exactly was going on. An ingrained sense of dread came at the same time the ground started to vibrate even harder than before.

Maybe it was an earthquake.

Or, perhaps . . .

They came barreling through the trunks and over the soft hills, dozens of tiny toothpick legs carrying them swiftly over the uneven forest floor. Giant pillbugs.

There were maybe a hundred or so, all stampeding in my direction. Somehow, they reminded me of the roly-poly bugs I used to play with when I was a kid. Except for the fact that they were bigger than an Earth fox.

I stood frozen and in shock for several heartbeats until I remembered myself. Then I turned tail and sprinted away from the coming herd of isopods. They gained ground quickly and I had a bit of sprint ahead of me before I would reach the next line of trees. As it was, I was caught in a rocky ravine and the colony was so large that it didn't matter which direction I went.

The first few reached me and I wasn't sure what to expect, but they skirted around me, continuing on without minding me in the least. I was in stealth, but they seemed to be able to sense that I was there.

However, the next ones to overtake me weren't so polite. They threatened to jostle and trip me, bumping my legs and shoving me around. I kicked one away from me and used a juke maneuver to bound up onto a moss-covered slope.

With a few well-placed leaps, I bounced from rock to rock and—_shit, not a rock!_

The isopod I'd landed on squeaked and shuddered before zipping out from under me. In an instant, the ground became the sky. I tumbled back and landed flat, then had to roll to avoid being trampled.

I jumped to my feet, dodged a few more isopods, then had one slam right into my chest. Though I heaved it up and over my head, several more of the fuckers bore down and climbed right over me. They weren't much heavier than a fat cat, but when I had half a dozen of them trying to climb me at the same time, I was struggling.

Their clawed toothpick legs bit into the exposed skin of my arms and legs, but my armor kept the more vital parts of my body safe. I coiled my core muscles, moved my legs underneath me, then leaped up and out of the herd of insects.

Back on my feet, free of burdens, I made one more break toward the trees. This time, I used the isopods as stepping-stones. Now I had a feel for how they moved and knew they could at least take my weight for a few seconds before collapsing.

It was slow going at first, but I found the rhythm and bounced from bug to bug until I found my opportunity. The nearest tree was too small to hold my weight, but I could still use it.

The mechanisms in my leg braces whirred as I coiled to spring, then propelled myself up to the tree. Using it as a springboard, I launched myself to the second tree and grabbed the stalk, sliding down a bit. I clung to it like that for a moment while I attempted to catch my breath, then I kicked and heaved until I pulled myself up to the branching fronds and rest.

The branch dipped preciously, so I clambered to a different one and hung out while I watched the big insects swarm.

The scratches I'd sustained stung and itched, but I ignored the discomfort and focused on the isopods as they scuttled over the ground, fleeing some unseen danger. I scanned the horizon they'd come from, but all I could see were trees and more bugs.

It seemed to take forever, but the last stragglers finally hobbled by underneath my perch and I stood to watch their forms disappear from my line of sight. When the forest fell still again, I turned once more to wait and see if what had spooked the things so much to make them stampede like that.

Nothing came skulking out of the woods.

With my luck, I thought it would be some sort of gargantuan armored dinosaur, but it seemed that they had successfully escaped whatever it was.

Sighing, I dropped back down to the ground. My braces absorbed most of the impact, but my legs twinged enough to make me wince and stagger. I made the mental note—_gravity was too much for that drop._

I used the lull to examine the damage to my legs and arms, but the skin hadn't been broken any more than when my dog had accidentally caught me with his claws, so I chalked it up to nothing more than an inconvenience and moved on. They itched the same way a cat scratch did, though.

That might have been cause for concern if Wolf hadn't assured me from day one that I was inoculated from most diseases and viruses.

_Glad I was unconscious for those vaccinations, _was what I had thought at the time. I could still remember the first time Wolf had dosed me with something, back when we had met on that crashed ship. I'd felt so sick for like an hour.

As I was about to move on, my curiosity got the better of me. I checked my map—the ship was in the general direction of where the isopods had come from. I had to head that way anyway to stay within my comfort radius . . .

What could it hurt to go and find out what had spooked those bugs? I could see what kind of predators hunted these lands. I didn't plan to engage, just look.

Adrenaline had chased away any fatigue I'd started to feel, so I began the task of backtracking where the bugs had come from. The trail led me past the ship's location and toward the other end of my radius, but I didn't bother stopping to check if it was okay, as it was a good two miles out of the way.

Really, I should be a little closer. Two miles was a long way to sprint if danger found me, but I was confident in my stamina and speed.

The real inconvenience was the thousands of tiny footprints from the isopods. They had completely demolished most of the tracks in the area. I rubbed my face in frustration (or, really my mask), and scowled at the ground. The only thing I had going for me now was the fact that I had a general idea of which direction my prey had been heading.

Those isopods had really done a number on the environment, though. Were they burrowers like their Earth cousins? I couldn't imagine something that big digging around below the surface was safe.

I could still hear them far off in the distance, crashing and thundering through. I didn't know how long they'd go before they tired themselves out or felt safe enough to stop, but I hoped it was before they flattened the whole damn biome.

By the time I had my first clue of what I was tracking, I was starting to succumb to the exhaustion from all the hiking and excitement. I trudged on, though, knowing that Wolf would keep going.

There wasn't much of a clue, though. Just a scratch mark on a stone. Everything else was buried under isopod scuffs and prints. Feeling somewhat dejected, I almost thought about giving up and settling in for the night. Maybe just a quick nap to rejuvenate some of my vitality, even.

Finally, I managed to catch a sign that I was waiting for: a cry.

It was like a raspy bark, unlike anything I'd heard so far. It had the faintest tinge of distress to it. It came again and I changed my heading more to the left to compensate for its movement. When I thought I was close enough, I slowed and climbed up a tree for a better vantage point.

Before I found it, I had to move to several different trees—and then I spotted it inside a flat grassy clearing, squashed and battered isopods littering the ground around it.

It was the size of a minivan, maybe, with a scaled hide colored like rust. Overall, it looked like a skinless beast with double-clawed paws and a paddle-like tail. It seemed to have a seam splitting it down the middle, but that didn't make any sense.

The thing pushed around the now-dead isopods, swallowed a few choice bits of meat and innards, then took off running. I almost chased after it, but stopped for a second. I had to check the map and my priorities. Make sure I was adhering to Wolf's rules so I didn't get in trouble . . .

Or, maybe, I could just tail it for a bit and then come back before he missed me. I wasn't hunting it, just following it.

Silently, after some hesitation, I went after the creature.


	14. Target

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> Sorry for the wait. I didn't get this chapter done on time so I didn't post it last week. The good news is that I'm not only posting this chapter, but the next one as well! So it's a double update Saturday to make up for no update last week! Hopefully it won't happen again :)
> 
> Special thanks to my patrons: Autumn, Annabelle, Daniel, Atira, Andrew, Lily, Kendra, Narttu, DarkLycan! And always to Citrine, my beautiful beta reader!
> 
> ~ Kayla

I kept one eye on the strange alien beast and the other eye on my map. Though I was going to give myself a little bit of leeway, I didn't want to venture too far away from the ship. I wasn't going to engage, either, just follow. Not only that, but I didn't want to accidentally cross paths with Wolf.

Thankfully, I had to scroll quite a while before I found the little blip that was him.

Now, that did mean he could see me, too, which was why I was trying so hard not to stray far. I could only hope he was too busy being a space detective bounty hunter guy to pay attention to my GPS location as religiously as I was.

I wasn't about to stop my own investigation just because I was afraid Wolf might not approve. Maybe if I learned enough about it, I could ask him if I could really hunt it. I'd tell him all about how I stalked it, everything I learned about it . . . Maybe he'd be so impressed that he'd let me do it by myself.

Ha, wishful thinking. Oh well. There wasn't anything wrong with having a hunting buddy, I supposed.

Still, it was fun to imagine doing it alone.

The thing—I supposed I should name it something since I didn't know what it was called—stopped to dig out more isopods from under the ground, answering the question I'd had earlier. I wondered if this thing ate the bugs as a staple since it was going out of its way to dig them up.

Those wicked claws couldn't just be for digging, right? They had to be for tearing up prey and enemies. It seemed to use its largely shovel-shaped nose for most of the digging.

It looked around at the isopods it had dug up and killed, ate more of them, then huffed and went on its way. I let it get ahead of me before tagging along in its wake.

I dropped down to the forest floor once more and paused in my pursuit long enough to examine one of those roly-poly looking fuckers up close. I hooked my fingers around one of them and picked it up with a small grunt and examined it. It was also similar to a horseshoe crab, with its many needle-like legs under its armored outer shell. It had a hideous face set just under the lip of its shell with a dozen tiny beady eyes and a woodchipper-like mouth.

Letting the bug drop, I continued after the beast. In the end, I decided to just call it David instead of coming up with a species name like I had the quillephants. I couldn't come up with anything good, anyway.

David was slowly meandering around with no true purpose, it seemed. I was going to pretend to be a narrator of those old nature documentaries, but I couldn't think of anything interesting to say. Instead, I just muttered my best Steve Irwin impression.

"What a beaut . . . I'm gonna wrastle him."

At some point, David must have started to realize that he was being stalked as his pace increased and his head swung around as he surveyed the area. I was certain he couldn't see me, but perhaps he could still sense that something was amiss. I had to assume that he wasn't at the top of the food chain if he was starting to get nervous.

For the most part, I was relying on my night vision and infrared. Since I was on a moon, I couldn't see any other moons or even the planet so it was so dark that I could barely see anything four feet in front of me without some sort of augmentation from my mask.

I'd already been following him for a few hours, and he didn't seem to be doing anything interesting, so I took a break and let him wander off. In the meantime, I checked my map; the ship was pretty far in the distance. If I wanted to keep following this thing around, I'd have to lure him back into my safety radius.

I wasn't sure how to do that without straight up making the beast chase me, but there had to be some sort of way . . . Antagonize him? Use the isopods as bait?

Then I remembered: my mask!

I stared at my computer for a moment, trying to remember the right sequence to use. Wolf had gone over all of the commands with me a couple of times before, but it was hard to remember them all.

In the end, I tried a few different ones until I found what I was looking for. Most of the other ones brought up various heads-up-displays. Starting up the recording feature, my mask played back a logged sound—the cries from the angry birds. Not quite what I wanted. I cycled through a few more until I found the cry David had made earlier.

At first, it just played softly. It took me a bit to figure out how to turn it up, then I blasted it for all to hear. It echoed through the woods before petering out into silence, disturbing a few sleeping birds. I waited so long for a response, even after playing it two more times, that I almost gave up entirely to make a camp for the night.

Finally, however, David called out from somewhere nearby. I chewed on my bottom lip as I tried to decide what to do, then I just played the distress call again. His reply came much sooner and much louder, so I posted up in a tree to wait for him to make his appearance.

Once again, I was excited. Progress! I was catching on quickly.

He showed up almost immediately after I was out of sight, bounding on his too-many legs and skidding to a stop in the ravine, sniffing and looking around. He made quieter, curious cries and when he couldn't find another one of him in distress, he slowly moved around, trying to pick up a scent trail.

Quietly, I left and headed toward the ship. When I'd moved far enough away, I made the distress call again. It took a bit, but he eventually came bounding through, growling and whipping his head around. I smiled to myself.

_C'mon, you dumb mutt. This way, _I thought.

After doing it a few times, I was within the range I wanted to be. If he ran out of range again, I'd just keep calling him. At some point, I figured I'd have diminishing returns as he started to realize he was being tricked, but for now, it was good enough.

I knew one thing now: whatever this creature was, it would come to the aid of others in danger.

I'd never use calls in practice before, but in my youth outdoors club in high school, we had used various calls just to learn about them—duck calls, elk mating bugle, stuff like that.

This was the first time I'd gotten to use a call with actual results and it was pretty neat!

Of course, the purpose of those other calls was to figure out where things were, not necessarily lure them to you.

Just following David around was getting kind of boring, though. I wanted to know more about him, but all he did was sniff around and sometimes dig up a bug to eat. I hadn't seen any other nocturnal creatures besides him and the isopods, so there didn't seem to be much for him to interact with.

As the night wore on and I grew more bored, I started getting closer and closer to him, pushing the limits of my stealth. He knew something was around, though, as he kept growling at nothing and clawed at the ground and trees in an agitated manner. I backed off during those times until he calmed down, then tried to get just a little closer.

Then, I decided to see what his hide was made of.

It took me a bit to work up the courage, but I eventually shot him with one of the darts loaded in my gauntlet. The arrow pinged right off his flank and he snarled in response, spinning around and around as she sought the thing that had the audacity to attack him.

So, David's scales were effectively armor. Good to know for when I convinced Wolf to let me hunt him.

Not long after that, the fatigue was really starting to set in and I couldn't help but yawn every few minutes. My vision was getting a little blurry and I was itching for a midnight snack and a nap. I supposed I had terrorized David enough for one night and decided to call it.

There was just one more thing I wanted to do.

Pet him.

Though it took a bit, I did manage to sneak up within arm's reach of David as he took a short rest by a stream of water. He seemed to be dozing off, so it was the perfect opportunity. Slowly, my hand outstretched, I inched closer and put my palm against his rising and falling side.

I enjoyed maybe three seconds of this impromptu moment where I was petting a giant alien beast. Three seconds of marveling at the power in those muscles below the hard skin—not scales like I had thought.

Three seconds before David woke up.

Arm-length fangs snapped shut on the air where I used to be standing just as I managed to tumble away. His beady yellow eyes locked onto me; I'd been had.

He lunged for me and I nimbly dodged and took off running.

I remained in stealth and hoped that if I could break his line of sight and find somewhere to hold still, he would lose me. From what I'd seen of him, though, he used his nose and ears to find things. Running through the woods, I was making a ton of noise.

And as something from out of this world, I probably had a very unique scent. I was gonna have to figure something else out. I dropped the stealth. It was difficult to do extravagant maneuvers in stealth because I couldn't properly see my extremities and it hindered my hand-eye coordination.

Though I was still largely using night vision—infrared was a bit disorienting for me still—I could still make out my surroundings and myself clearly enough to bound over obstacles and clamber up sloping tree stalks to avoid his snapping maw.

Eventually, though, we ran out of forest and I found myself in another stone ravine, toxic water trickling between the rocks and pooling in various spots. I was fighting a quite literal uphill battle and with no trees in the way, David had the upper hand and bounded in front of me, blocking my way.

I wished I could make some intimidating sounds like Wolf could, but all I had were smart remarks and screaming in my arsenal. Maybe I could scare him off if I did.

David took a few steps toward me, his head canting from side to side like a confused mutt. I did my best impression of a growl and, with a flex of muscle, had my wrist-blades extended and ready for a fight. I didn't want it to go on too long, just enough to find an escape.

After all, I wasn't supposed to be hunting. I could flee at any point without losing dignity.

But, wait . . . if I wasn't on a hunt then this would surely be self-defense, right? Wolf wouldn't blame me for that, right?

Maybe this was my chance to show him that I was going to be fine.

That I could do this on my own. That he didn't need to worry about me.

Yes, this was my shot.

I crouched low and circled around David, letting the point of my weapon drag across the rocks for an ear-splitting sound effect. The pair of tiny ears on his head rotated and flicked in irritation.

Did that mean screaming at the top of my lungs would work?

We circled each other for a few seconds that seemed to last several minutes. I was starting to get the impression that now that he could see me, he was a bit underwhelmed. He clearly didn't think that I was too big of a threat, either, because he was actually starting to leave_._

Fucking rude.

That should have been the end of it. I should have let him go and took the rest of the night off as I'd planned. However, the opportunity to prove myself was slipping through my fingers. Not only to Wolf, but to myself. I hadn't had a real test of my limits yet.

Sparring with Wolf was hard, but it wasn't someone's-trying-to-kill-me hard.

How would I hold out against an opponent that was seeking my death? Surely I needed to know, then I could properly tell Wolf how I was doing instead of just trusting his judgment when it came to my own capabilities. I had to know.

I rushed forward and forced him to pay attention to me. He took my advance as the challenge that it was and made a little hop to face me before he let out a grating bellow that bounced around inside my skull. It was enough to stagger me.

Taking sufficient exception to my challenge, David sprung and swiped at me with his double-clawed talons. I had just enough wherewithal to retreat, but his claws still scraped across my chest plate, sending out a spatter of sparks.

I reacted in kind, lashing out with my wrist blades, but only managed to swipe the air between us. He leaned forward and struck with his other claw, forcing me back even farther.

Finally, I found enough flat space to dive-roll out of the way of a third strike and maneuver around to his flank.

All the while, I was scanning and reading the reports on my HUD, trying to figure out where I should strike. The whole thing was extremely disorienting, though, and I wound up taking a paw to the shoulder while I was trying to pay attention to everything at once.

Fine.

I was going to do this my way. As much as I wanted to take advantage of all that Wolf had to offer, this was just one of those limits I had to accept.

I turned off all my displays and scans while regrouping and checking my shoulder. When I rotated it, it still worked, so that was all that mattered. The bruise would heal eventually. No skin was broken.

Without anything extra impeding my vision, I ran at David again. He bounded toward me and I planted my feet, coiling my leg muscles. The mechanisms in my braces whirred, then I jumped. Using his face as a spring-board, I leapfrogged over him and landed behind his first set of shoulders, closest to his head.

Too late, I remembered the odd crease between his second set of shoulders and his waist.

His body twisted like some sort of macabre marionette. I had to hold on for dear life as he spun his entire upper body around as if it was completely separate from his lower half. I wasn't able to stay mounted and was unceremoniously dumped on the rocky floor, jarring my spine and leaving me stunned.

David stopped his thrashing and his body returned to normal, snapping back into place.

I grit my teeth and rolled to my stomach. If I'd seen him do that before, I might not have considered antagonizing him the way I had.

If I wasn't so deep in the shit, I might have retreated strategically. By this time, though, I feared it was too late.

David crept toward me, his shovel-shaped head held low to the ground and I crouched where I was, preparing myself for whatever attack he had coming my way.

The double set of claws on his front feet flexed out like a set of spike traps, and then he reared up on his hind legs, both sets of forelimbs raised and ready to rend my skin. He snarled and took a few heavy upright steps toward me before he came slamming down with a powerful flurry of strikes.

I raised my wrist blades to fend off the first set, but the second set ran down my arm, breaking the netting and scoring deep lacerations into my flesh. A pained shriek tore from my throat and I twisted around, kicking out with my leg.

My braces flexed and the blow landed on the underside of his jaw, sending him reeling with a shrill whimper. I thought maybe one of his fangs went flying through the air, but I was blinded by agony.

With a swift movement, I gathered up a handful of dirt and rocks. When David turned to look at me, I hurled it at his face. He let out a horrid yowl and bucked away, pawing at his eyes.

Bought me some time, at least.

Clutching my flayed arm, I staggered as far away as I could and shimmied into a hole beneath two overlapping boulders, fighting to catch my breath. David was still whimpering and whining, so I knew I still had a few moments. Enough to assess the damage.

Immediately, I knew I had to stop the bleeding. It was pouring down my arm, dripping in long, watery ribbons. The way it was already pooling and soaking my side was alarming and I had to tamp down the panic that threatened to overwhelm me.

Already, the faint sounds of David rooting around in the background reached my ears. He was looking for me.

And getting closer—following the scent of my fresh blood.

How was I gonna treat this? Did I have enough time to take my medkit out? If I lost any more blood, I was going to have a really fucking hard time. It wouldn't stop, though, and the wound didn't even look that deep to begin with, so where was all this blood coming from!

With my left arm out of commission, I couldn't even check my map to see how far he'd chased me or in which direction. I had no way of knowing how close I was to the ship.

I should have left David well enough alone—I didn't observe him for long enough—I didn't think this through—I didn't—

Something big blocked out the stars that had been twinkling above my head. I froze stiff, then had to wiggle my way out of an even tighter hole to escape the scraping claws trying to shred me from outside. I popped out on the other side, but that gave David free reign to pounce.

A familiar roar lifted my rapidly sinking spirits. He appeared from nowhere, delivering a huge haymaker to David's head, sending him flailing head over paws like a truck that came to a sudden and violent stop. David's back slammed down, and then he tumbled farther down the ravine, letting out a wrenching yelp.

His blow had the giant alien beast writhing on the ground in agony at the bottom of the ravine, whimpering and kicking his many legs. For now, it looked like David was unable to get up.

Wolf turned toward me.

"Why are you here?" I demanded, more shocked than anything else.

He ignored my question and asked his own. "What is going on?" The coldness of his voice made my heart stutter.

No doubt, he was mad.


	15. Conquer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> Here's the second chapter just like I promised. Back to one chapter next week! This is just a special occasion since I didn't manage to post one last week and this one was super easy to compile because it's mostly cannibalized from a first draft chapter. It also helps that Citrine didn't find any glaring issues with it like she normally does lmao. I done good today, folks!
> 
> Special thanks to my patrons: Autumn, Annabelle, Daniel, Atira, Andrew, Lily, Kendra, Narttu, DarkLycan!
> 
> ~ Kayla

"It attacked me. I got too close in my eagerness to observe it," I half lied, still clutching my bleeding arm. In English, I added, _"I was just defending myself, I swear."_

Wolf looked at me for a while, then the gaze of his mask shifted to my arm.

"I see," he said, approaching me. "Then there was no helping it."

I was relieved. Maybe I could get away without making him too upset with me. He seemed to buy my excuse for now.

"You will need to cauterize that wound. It will not stop bleeding until you do, even if you bandage or staple it," Wolf said. It was more of a command than a recommendation, not that I would have argued with him about it.

There was just a teensy problem.

"What is 'cauterize'?" I asked. The Yaut'ja word was foreign to me.

Unlike normal, he seemed somewhat disgruntled that he had to explain. I supposed time was of the essence, though, since David could be back on us in moments.

"Use heat to close the wound."

Ah, _cauterize._

Wait, that was going to suck!

David was back on his feet. He gave himself a vigorous shake and then let out that ear-splitting roar again. Both Wolf and I staggered at the aural onslaught; my ears were ringing and my head was fuzzy.

"I will hold its attention. When you are well enough to rejoin, our goal is to drive it off, not kill it," Wolf instructed. "Do not use firearms—it may draw unwanted attention.

There wasn't time for us to say much else. David pounced and scattered the two of us.

At first, David was intent on continuing his pursuit of me, but Wolf drew him away with a successful throat punch. Incensed, David turned on my companion.

My vision was starting to go in and out, so I had to work fast. Since Wolf said nothing would work except cauterizing the wound, I didn't bother taking out my medkit. Instead, I drew my carving knife and firestarter, using the latter to heat the blade until it was faintly glowing.

I picked up a stick, chomped down on it, then pressed the flat side of the blade up against the first gash. A strangled sound escaped my throat and the sickly scent of burning flesh filled my nose. The pain had me seeing stars, but I persisted and did it two more times—once for each of the three lacerations running down my bicep.

After checking my work, I decided the wounds had, indeed, stopped bleeding. The ground around me was darkened brown all over the place, but I wasn't going to lose anymore. I took out a roll of gauze-like material from my medkit and tied it around my arm just in case.

Since the bleeding had stopped and David was still busy with Wolf, I felt like I had enough breathing room to get the gauze.

My fingers curled and flexed just fine once I was done, so I decided everything was okay.

Well, except for the pain.

But pain was my life. I could work through it.

I located the two of them locked in a dance not far away. David was on the attack, but Wolf still cut in with some sharp blows of his own. He had his wrist blades out and was parrying David's high energy slashes and swipes. As I approached, he barely had enough time to acknowledge me with a glance before he had to dodge another clawed paw.

"Hey!" I shouted, trying to divert David's attention to me again.

The suddenness of my voice did exactly what I wanted and Wolf snuck in a decisive counterattack to a sloppy swat from David. The digits of his second right paw broke and a few snapped claws clattered among the stones below. David reeled, yelping in pain, but didn't fully retreat.

He was limping, but he was still going after Wolf who was being driven toward the edge of the woods. It was then that I knew what I had to do.

"Wolf, throw me at that tree!" I shouted, running straight at him.

The tree in question was drooping over the ravine not too far away.

Wolf laced his fingers together. When I stepped into his palms, he flung me toward the tree. Just as I trusted, he didn't over- or undershoot. I caught the tree's stalk easily, sailing over David who tried desperately to snatch me out of the air—but failed.

It looked for a second like David would continue to pursue me, but Wolf jumped on him. He kept David busy by locking him in a stranglehold with his bare fucking hands, keeping him subdued for the time being with his unadulterated big dick energy. I used what leverage I could muster to shove off my branch and shoot straight down just as the beast freed himself from Wolf's grapple.

With a snarl, David got in a single swipe at Wolf before I placed a well-aimed heel drop to the center of David's forehead.

My braces hummed with the effort to absorb the impact and it was enough to send a shock wave up to my hips, but the effect was instantaneous; David made a strangled sound as another tooth chipped and his face was shoved into the rocky floor.

Wolf helped me back to my feet: the impact had been a bit much and I was unsteady. The two of us edged back, waiting to see what David would do. I had been ready to go back in, but Wolf had restrained me with a gesture and a sharp sound.

It took a minute for David to stagger upright, then he bared his broken fangs at us. I braced for another attack, but the beast huffed and puffed—then turned tail and fled into the night.

Still we waited, watching, trying to see if he'd come back.

He didn't.

I felt like my whole body was electrified with giddy excitement. I turned to Wolf with a bright expression hidden by my mask. "We did it! That was—"

Wolf grabbed my injured arm and interrupted me. I let out a pained squeak as he examined the bandaged injury, chittering to himself thoughtfully. I kept my mouth shut while he assessed the damage, knowing that I was on thin fucking ice after this fiasco.

"You did cauterize these well. The bandages were unnecessary though," he grunted, running his fingers over the gauze.

Shrugging, I said, _"They make me feel better."_

He scoffed at that.

"How did you know I was in trouble?" I asked.

"Your vitals indicated that you were likely in a bad situation. I would have let you get yourself out of it, but for some reason, you were close enough that I could check on you," he said. Somewhere in there was an accusation.

I gaped and quickly checked my map. While avoiding David, I hadn't had the chance and had just assumed I was still in range of the ship. Turned out that I was halfway between the ship and the spot where I'd last seen Wolf on my map. I knew he'd been able to track me, but I hadn't realized he was keeping tabs on me the whole time, either.

The news made me equal parts touched and frustrated.

"Now, tell me what happened," he clipped.

_"I told you, I just got a little sloppy while I was following him,"_ I insisted.

Wolf was unconvinced. "And why were you following him?"

_"I didn't have anything else to do."_

I couldn't quite meet his gaze and he picked up on that fact. Growling, he crowded me and made me even more aware of our size difference.

"You purposefully antagonized it into attacking you, did you not?"

My mouth worked up and down for a second, but all I managed to do was croak out a half-hearted, _"What, no."_

"Nichole!"

His use of my birth name made me flinch. He had to use his throat like a talking bird to pronounce it, so it was a bit distorted, but there was no doubt that he had shouted my name.

I fidgeted and tried to come up with an excuse, but he likely knew when I was lying. He could read my heartbeat and temperature and body language better than anyone could. I hadn't ever needed to lie to him before, so it had never been something I dwelled on.

_"That wasn't my . . . plan. Not really. I just, I was just following him and trying to learn things about him so that maybe I could hunt him later when you got back,"_ I finally said after a moment or two passed. _"I wanted you to see that I was ready."_

"How long did you follow it? What did you witness?" Wolf demanded.

_"He hunted those giant bugs to eat and wandered around some, and I learned that his hide is too protected for piercing . . . And when I used his own call, he came running and would follow."_

Wolf chittered quickly. "Did you see how it handled any confrontation with other large beasts?"

"No . . ."

"What it is capable of? How it attacked?"

"I saw him use his head and claws to dig . . ."

"Its sleep patterns? Social habits?"

"I get it!"

"Do you?" he snapped, grabbing my arm again. "Did you know that their claws have a bacteria that prevents clotting? That even a shallow cut can make you bleed out? If you knew that, would you have been so quick to instigate a fight without proper preparation?"

My hands balled into fists and I fought back angry tears. "No," I almost whispered.

"You think too much when you do not need to and not enough when it counts!" he berated me.

Before I could rebut, he suddenly staggered. I didn't hesitate to try to aid him, but he pushed me away. That hurt more than any words he could spit at me.

I couldn't see very well with night vision, so I switched to visible light and used my fire starter to provide illumination, though it wasn't a lot. It was enough, however, for me to see the copious amounts of blood pooling underneath him.

David had got him.

Thankfully, now I knew what to do.

"Quick, let me treat it!" I yelped, coming once again to his side to see just where he had been scratched.

This time, he let me. Before I could find the source, however, a single voice cut through the silent night and both of us froze.

"Well, well, well . . . Look what we found, boys."


	16. Bleeding Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> We are now caught up with the first draft. The rest of the chapters will only need to have some cohesive edits made to bring them in line with my new vision and the changes I made to the beginning. Hopefully, it's gonna be smooth sailing from here. :) Enjoy the ride.
> 
> Special thanks to my patrons: Autumn, Annabelle, Daniel, Atira, Andrew, Lily, Kendra, Narttu, DarkLycan!
> 
> ~ Crayola

I looked around, but I couldn't see anyone. Wolf forced himself back to his feet, growling and pushing me behind him.

"What an odd sight," another disembodied voice spoke. "A mighty arbitrator is training a human?"

"That's what it looks like," came the first voice.

To Wolf, I whispered, "_Can you spot them? How many_?" I kept trying to follow the voices, but no matter where I looked, I couldn't see anything.

They were definitely speaking Yaut'ja, so they had to be in stealth. But why use stealth when you were going to announce yourselves anyway? Some sort of psychological warfare?

Wolf's answer was a short growl. "Two so far. Use sight nine."

While the voices continued to converse with each other as if we weren't right there, I did as he said and flicked through my vision modes until I spotted two other life forms—of course, on my HUD, they showed up as only greenish-yellow pulses of sound with each beat of their heart, or each step they took.

"The human held its own fairly well," the first voice was saying.

"Sloppy and unrefined," the second remarked, "but serviceable, I suppose. For a human."

That was followed by a chuckle from the first voice. "I think it might be female."

"Oh, you might be right. Think he keeps her around for other reasons?"

Though they were speaking in slang and it was hard to follow, I at least understood that they were making fun of me. I couldn't see them except for the soundwaves they made when speaking, but that would be enough to throw something at them with at least a little bit of accuracy.

Sensing my irritation, Wolf put a hand on my shoulder. I jumped and remembered that he was hurt, bleeding out somewhere. I changed back to night vision and did my best to ignore the interlopers. If they weren't attacking, I had time to dress his wound.

Just as I started to move, though, Wolf tugged on me and a spear struck the ground where I was. I had to swallow a surprised screech—how had he known that was coming?

"Did I say you could move?" one of the voices cackled.

"You did not say I was not allowed to!" I barked back.

The jibe only earned a few bemused snickers as the second voice commented, "Oh, she's got a grasp on our language. Though, it's just as sloppy as her footwork!"

"Still, color me impressed."

"Enough."

A third, deeper voice boomed from above us and Wolf pushed me behind him at his flank. Standing at the top of the ravine was a yautja, his stealth removed and looming ahead of us like a ghost in my night vision.

Something was off, though. This one didn't remind me so much of the yautja I was used to. He held himself different. He was bigger, a little bulkier. Standing high above us, he looked like a regular titan.

Actually, he reminded me of Brutus.

The first time I'd met him on that desolate ship so many years ago, I thought similar things when I realized it wasn't Wolf I had run into.

Two more, this time more typical yautja phenotypes, joined him. Having them so close only confirmed that this one was bigger than what I was used to and I recalled something Wolf had told me during my lessons on yautja culture.

"_Is that a . . . a hish?_" I asked Wolf.

Hish. Genetic cousins to the yautja, all from the same planet.

"Yes," he replied.

The one to the left chittered in muted surprise—it was the second voice. "Oh, she even knows about you. This arbitrator's serious about her training."

"_Do you know who they are_?" I asked, ignoring their continued conversation.

Wolf growled and his wrist blades sang from their gauntlet, startling me. "Criminals. All three of them have open warrants, but I did not know that they were a team. None of them is the one I came for today."

To think he recognized them with just a single look . . .

"Are they well-known?" I inferred.

"Yes."

"Oh indeed, we are sort of a big deal," the first said in a smug voice, rolling his shoulders. He seemed to have a bit more energy than the other two, and the constant whine in his voice kind of reminded me of a jackal or a hyena—Jackal sounded better in my head.

"What is it you seek?" Wolf demanded. "Showing yourselves in the presence of an arbitrator is suicide."

Titan—the hish—who hadn't said more than one word since showing himself, looked down upon us and flexed his fingers. "It would be if said arbitrator was not . . . incapacitated." The way he enunciated that last word sent a shiver down my spine.

The third one chittered and sneered, "You will only get weaker! We watched the fight." He stood out from the others not because of his size or vibe, but because of the metal mandible fastened to the bottom of his mask. The fit wasn't quite right, so it stuck out like a sore thumb.

"We waited," Jackal interjected.

Ignoring his obvious lackeys, Titan said, "You were sloppy running over here . . . We heard a noise outside of our encampment and knew it wasn't wildlife. We tracked you here and found you fighting alongside this human, so we waited to see what would happen."

"And you were hit!" Lockjaw sneered. "Now you're gonna bleed out!"

He used the most slang out of all of them. I wasn't used to it, so I was falling behind in the conversation. It seemed like everyone else I had spoken to was just being polite, and here I'd thought that was just how they all spoke.

I was mostly hidden by Wolf, so I was doing my best to dress his wound the way he told me to do mine. It was just under his right shoulder blade; two lacerations were hemorrhaging. Just looking for the wound already had my hands stained green and made holding onto my tools a struggle.

Panic welled inside me. I had to get the bleeding to stop or else he wouldn't be able to keep standing pretty soon let alone be able to fend off their attacks.

All at once, three separate beams of red light flared and Wolf growled. I peeked out from around him and saw all three of the bad bloods had sighted their shoulder-mounted cannons on Wolf. The color drained from my face

"Don't think we can't see you back there. Get away from him," Jackal demanded.

Titan rumbled in amusement. "Yes, do back up. It would be more difficult for us if you got him in fighting condition too early."

If it hadn't been before, the panic was certainly threatening to overwhelm me now. I turned my gaze to Wolf, waiting for instructions of some sort, but he just nodded and pointed with his chin for me to move.

I definitely didn't like the fact that he kept teetering on his feet like he was about to collapse. All the same, I took a few steps away from him.

Titan spoke up again, his voice on a frequency that made my chest tight and anxiety spike. It was like the distant rumble of a stampede or thunder. "Now, though I do not particularly care about your normal codes, rest assured that we will not let him die. That would defeat the purpose of capturing him."

"What do you want with us?" I asked, addressing him directly.

"I want nothing to do with you," he growled before pointing at Wolf. "I only came here to get him."

Lockjaw sneered up. "Yes, just the arbitrator!"

"Shut up," Jackal snarled. "He can speak for himself!"

The two of them bickered back and forth wordlessly, communicating only in growls and body language—something that happened a lot back on the clanship and even between Wolf and Brutus the one time I'd seen them together.

Meanwhile, all I could do was watch the show with growing incredulity. Were these guys really hardened criminals? Titan, maybe, but Jackal and Lockjaw just acted like a bunch of stooges.

"I would like for you to surrender." Titan had to raise his voice to be heard over his goons. "However, should you wish to come with us the hard way, then we will oblige and take you by force."

Before Wolf could respond, I did. "You are not taking him anywhere."

Wolf huffed at me, not unkindly, then spoke to Titan. "What do you want?"

"I am . . . a collector of sorts. Not quite trophies like you know. An arbitrator is missing from my collections of beasts. A human is, too, but I do not think yours would fit in," Titan explained. I had a feeling he was being purposefully vague.

In an undertone, hopefully so only Wolf could hear it, I added, "We can still take them, right?"

Of course, I had no illusion about _my_ ability to take even one of them, but together . . .

He didn't respond.

"Wolf?"

Without looking at me, Wolf uttered, "You need to run."

My eyes widened and I snapped my attention back on the three bad bloods. I couldn't fathom a world where Wolf didn't leap head-on into a fight. There couldn't be such a world.

During my silence, he said, "Return to the ship. I will do my best to keep them distracted."

"_I can't leave you," _I insisted, grabbing his arm.

"You must. They clearly want me alive, but I fear they would just kill you," he reasoned, urging me back.

"_What should I do?"_

"Get help," he said.

Though I had switched to English to try and throw them off, I didn't think it would stall them for more than a few extra seconds while their translators worked, and they picked up the gist off of Wolf's side of the conversation anyway.

"So, we do this the hard way, Mister Arbitrator," Titan sighed. "Who'ghar, get the human. Do as you wish with her. Shum and I will collect our prey."

Quiet, barely audible even to me, Wolf muttered, "Do not worry yourself. Do what you must. There are no more rules today."

"What?"

With a devious rattle that drew me away from Wolf, Jackal said, "At your word, Kar-thur'ghas."

And then he was gone. That was my cue.

I couldn't help but hesitate for even a second. Once again, I was back in the woods running from those xenomorphs, trying to decide whether or not I should abandon my friends and save myself.

"Nichole!" Wolf snarled.

It lasted only long enough for that one memory to fire off in my brain before Wolf's heavy command cut through my doubts. I wasn't abandoning him, I was just giving myself a second chance to help later. We were beaten down and exhausted. I was the only one in any real, immediate danger.

So, I turned and broke into a sprint.

I lost a little bit of ground checking my map, but I had to know which direction to go.

Behind me, Wolf's battle snarl reverberated through the trees. My steps faltered, but I kept running. I was glad they had only sent one of them after me—I could handle one, maybe. Especially if all I had to do was get away, if not win.

My goal stayed at the forefront of my mind: go to the ship. Call for help. Prepare myself for a fight. Meet back up with Wolf.

Adrenaline pushed me on, made the soreness in my limbs bearable. I hadn't yet heard any signs of Jackal coming for me, so I had to assume that Wolf had at least delayed him a little bit. Any sounds of their fight had long since been left behind in my desperate bid for escape, so I had no frame of reference for anything except the path that I was taking.

Then I heard it. An almost imperceptible sound somewhere off to my four o'clock. My mask picked it up, alerting me with a small ping. I kept most of my attention focused on where I was going, but I dedicated some of it to trying to figure out where the attack was going to come from and how it would manifest.

A plasma bolt blazed behind me and I ducked in the nick of time, the heat from it singing my shoulder. It blasted through the thick stalk of one of the trees ahead of me and I slid underneath it, activating my cloak at the same time.

I didn't get back up, but I hurled a stone ahead of me and waited, doing my damnedest to control my breathing. All I could do was see just how stupid these criminals were.

If they were anything like Earth criminals, they were all fucking morons.

To my immense relief, this one at least wasn't very bright.

Jackal caught up to where I was and the tree next to my hiding place creaked and swayed with his weight. After a pause, he jumped to the next one. He stopped there to look around and I narrowed my eyes. He thought so little of me that he wasn't cloaked.

Still kind of holding my breath, I took aim with my gauntlet and fired off a round right at him. He let out a confused chuff as he was nailed with the razer netting I still had loaded up. The force of it made him tumble off his perch and out of sight. Part of me thought I should use whatever advantage I had to kill the guy right there, but I was on a time limit.

However, I did pass him on my way. He was pinned against the base of a tree, the net's anchors wrapped around the stalk and steadily constricting.

Maybe if I was lucky, he'd just die to that. Though I really doubted it.

I did my best to ignore him as I continued my sprint and he flung a myriad of insults in my direction, most of which I actually hadn't ever heard before and had no idea what they meant. They must have been especially vitriolic.

"_Yeah, fuck you too, buddy," _I muttered under my breath.


	17. Mask of Steel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers!
> 
> It's been a very stressful week but I made it with the update anyway. Hope you guys enjoy it :)
> 
> Special thanks to my patrons: Autumn, Annabelle, Daniel, Atira, Andrew, Lily, Kendra, Narttu, DarkLycan!
> 
> ~ Kayla

My vision was blurry; my legs felt like pudding. I was breathing so hard that my mask couldn't filter the air fast enough and my lungs were shriveled up. I hadn't dared to stop even once to catch my breath or rest since I didn't know how far behind me these assholes were. I carried on like a woman possessed, trudging as fast as I could even though I'd long since past the point of being able to run.

When the landing area finally came into view, I tried to push myself the last few paces. At the same time, I barely managed to recall how to turn off its stealth feature before collapsing.

Critter was already scurrying off the ship in a fit. He must have seen me coming.

"Ast'ni! Ast'ni!" he fussed, scooping me up into his four arms.

"Get—on—ship," I wheezed between desperate gasps of air.

He obliged and hauled me up the loading ramp as if I were a mere child. I shifted until I could force the ship to go back into stealth and all the while, Critter bombarded me with question after question.

"Ast'ni hurt? How get hurt? Master still on hunt? What Ast'ni need?"

I tried to rip my mask off, but my extreme exhaustion was making the necessary fine motor skills impossible. Critter did it for me and held onto it while I continued to gulp down as much air as my lungs could take until I had enough to form better sentences.

"We are under attack," I said, squirming until Critter put me down. "Wolf is captured."

My words elicited a surprised chirp out of him.

"Bad bloods—must get to—bridge." I huffed and puffed, using the wall a support as I tried dragging myself toward my destination.

Critter tried to heave me back up, letting out a few alarmed trills. His busy legs were tapping feverishly as he tried to decide what to do, where to go, torn between helping me and following the orders I was giving.

I flattened my palm against his chest to calm him down and said, "Go send SOS. I must—get some things."

"Who send?" he whined.

There was no precedence for this. No protocol. Wolf had never sat me down and told me what the plan was if we were ever attacked by criminals and I had to go alone. Thankfully, all the training I still remembered from my numbered days in the FBI took over and I did my best to take charge even if inside, all I wanted was for Wolf to show up and tell us what to do.

I needed water, badly, but it would have to wait. I didn't have the luxury to regain my strength. Not yet. Who knew when those assholes were going to show up.

"Where—where is Creature?" I let out a breathless cough.

Instead of answering, Critter turned and let out a high-pitched squeal that made me wince. It grated against my ears in the cramped corridor, making me even dizzier. However, it successfully managed to summon Creature who came skittering around the corner as quickly as he could.

"Distress?" he asked, looking between me and Critter.

"Creature, broadcast a general SOS signal . . . and send one to the last hailed—transmission," I said. "Critter, lock down the ship—so the bad bloods cannot . . . board us." I was still having an hell of a time catching my breath, but I was doing my best to communicate clearly.

Though I expected Creature to ask for an explanation, he didn't hesitate for even a second before heading toward the bridge to follow my command. Critter, however, watched me for a few precious moments.

I said to him, "I am okay. Please go."

He tapped his claws to indicate that he heard me and closed the loading ramp. I thought I'd wandered farther into the ship, but apparently, I'd only dragged myself a few feet away. Then, Critter skittered off into the hot, dark ship. I turned to watch the loading ramp, waiting to make sure no one came in.

Hoping that perhaps Wolf would show up, victorious.

It was more likely that Jackal would show up, though. Once it was finally closed, I sank down to the ground and put my hands on my head. I would have stood up if I could, but my legs were at their limits even with the braces and I didn't think I could stand without first taking a break. I used the time to guzzle what was left in my waterskin.

Once I had recovered enough to breathe normally, I forced myself to stand. My legs shook under my weight, but I walked to the armory. Creature and Critter should be completing their tasks by now, so I had to tend to mine. I had to prepare, I had to be ready for when they came knocking.

My hands trembled as I gathered things I thought I'd need—more clips for my plasma pistol, knives, a chain cuff for a weapon I was trying to learn, and even some more rations. It was equal parts exhaustion and adrenaline that was making my whole body shake, but I worked through it. Then, I pulled the plasma rifle out of its cupboard and set it on the table.

Before I could open its case, though, Critter arrived.

"Ast'ni!" he called, taking up the whole doorway.

"Did Creature send the messages?" I asked him. I removed the plasma rifle from its box.

He indicated in the positive so I asked, "Is the ship secure?" while strapping the rifle to my back, next to my favorite blade.

Quickly, he said "Yes!" and then announced, "They outside."

My heart fell into the soles of my boots. "Who?"

"Bad bloods."

I let out a slew of curses in both English and even a few in Yaut'ja, leaning on the table to thread my fingers through my hair and stare at the metal surface. I knew they would show up at any moment, but I hoped that I would have at least a little more time. Closing my eyes, I took a few steadying breaths of the ship's sterile air and tried to build up the mental fortitude to go and deal with what waited for me out there.

However long I was standing there, it was long enough to cause Critter some concern.

"Ast'ni?" he said in a small voice. "Am unwell?"

Standing up straight, I wiped the moisture away from my eyes and sniffed, then asked him for the mask he was still holding in one hand. "I am well, Critter. Have they made any attempts to contact us?"

His claws clicked in the negative.

After another brief moment I used to steel myself, I said, "Is there anything else?"

Critter shifted around nervously, his antennae drooping. I stared at him until he finally spat out whatever he wanted to say. "Master is with them."

I was out of the room in an instant, pushing past the massive bug alien. Creature was in the hallway, storming around. He moved out of my way, but I was vaguely aware that both he and Critter were trailing after me, looking for direction.

The only problem was . . . I was looking for some fucking direction, too.

There were a few twists and turns, but we eventually made it onto the bridge. I stopped short, then slowly approached the window with my mask still in hand. I had a lot of gear equipped, but there could have been things I missed. Hopefully, I would have time to go back again.

But probably not.

Standing in front of the large viewport—just fucking standing on the goddamn hood of Wolf's ship, was Titan.

"Should have told you to raise the blast shield," I muttered to no one in particular, slowly walking up as close to the window as I dared. I didn't think he could break the glass (shit was meant to withstand space junk hurtling at ridiculous speeds), but I didn't want to take the chance, either.

Because of the way the front of the ship was shaped, he was standing even taller than before and he had to crouch down to get closer to my eye level. Neither one of us would be able to hear each other, so I wasn't sure what his goal was.

A light beep from the computer caught my attention and I glanced at it. Hadn't the slightest idea what it was trying to tell me, though. I should have spent more time asking Wolf how the ship worked.

"Critter, what is it?" I asked, hoping that maybe someone was responding to our call for aid.

"Am hailed," he responded. "Do answer?"

My brows knit together and I looked at Titan. He tapped the side of his mask to indicate that he was trying to talk.

"_Fine," _I said. Louder, in Yaut'ja, I said, "Yes, answer."

Critter tapped the screen and Titan's voice came through loud and clear with that strange dialect of his. "Hello, Miss Human. You took my boy by surprise, it seems. What other surprises might you be hiding in that tiny body of yours?"

I said nothing, just glowered. Mostly because I was afraid I might accidentally say something salacious.

Titan didn't miss a beat. "I know you must be upset, but this is nothing personal. We have seen you are broadcasting an SOS, though, and we cannot abide. Turn it off or we will be forced to kill Mister Arbiter and abandon this planet. I do not believe any of us wish for that outcome."

Spinning on my heel, I left my position and stood next to Critter in front of the panel. "How do I respond?"

Creature walked up next to us as Critter pointed. I followed his lead and tapped the symbol he was looking at, then looked to him for confirmation. He nodded his head and turned his attention back on Titan.

"Where is he?" I demanded.

"Down here with us. I am not here to negotiate his release if that is your intention. Either cease broadcasting or we have to kill him. Those are the only choices," he responded, his tone so even and cool that it made me hate him more.

I grit my teeth and my nails bit into the palms of my hands. Was there really nothing else to do? Nothing at all? I wracked my brain, but no brilliant ideas came. My mind was too foggy from exhaustion and anger and guilt to think straight.

When I failed to respond in a timely manner, he sighed and said, "We both already know you will stop broadcasting. If you do not, he will die. If you do, he will live to fight another day."

A bead of sweat ran down the side of my face and I tried not to start trembling, but it was hard.

Critter hissed behind me and I felt him move closer to me.

"However," Titan said, "I regret to tell you there is no scenario here in which you live."

Again, Critter hissed. I shushed him and responded. "Not even one?"

Titan chuckled. "We will either cripple your ship, leaving you here to die on this planet; or we will break in and kill you. Of course, you are free to come out here and fight for your life if that is what you wish."

"So there is one scenario in which I live," I retorted.

"You think too highly of yourself. Time is wasting, Miss Human. Cease your broadcast."

I released my finger from the panel and turned to look up at Critter; his antennae were vibrating in a way I'd never seen before. I asked him, "Can he still hear us?"

"No," he assured me.

"Did you send a message to the last hailed frequency as I asked?"

He nodded.

"Did it send successfully?"

Another yes.

My shoulders sagged in relief. Even if I stopped broadcasting, someone was going to get the message, at least. I didn't know who, and I didn't know if they would actually come to help us, but it was better than nothing.

Titan must have thought I was feeling defeated because he said, "That is a good girl, Miss Human. I knew you were smart."

Holy fuck I had never wanted to punch someone in the face more—not even my old boss from the FBI and he was an asshole.

Still and all, I politely asked Critter to stop the SOS from broadcasting. He hesitated somewhat. Long enough to make Creature step up and do it instead, then promptly chide him for not following an order with utmost obedience.

"Leave Critter alone, Creature," I muttered half-heartedly.

After a second, long enough for Titan to confirm that the signal had stopped, he said, "There. That was not a hard decision, was it? Now we do not have to kill Mister Arbiter before his time. So, what will it be for you?"

For me. How did I want to die?

I could die alone on a planet with a crippled ship, living my life out in solitude before I finally kicked the bucket or they came in after me. Or, I could go out fighting and hang on to the hope that maybe, just maybe, I'd be able to take out at least one of them. At least that way I wouldn't have to live the rest of my life with the guilt that I was the piece of shit that had gotten Wolf captured.

There was no other choice.

Waiting patiently, Titan tilted his head to the side. I steeled myself, then put my finger to the panel and said, "I will come out."

He trilled with delight. "Excellent. This will make a fine show."

Without further ado, he closed communications and slid off the front of our ship, disappearing somewhere below. I folded over the panel and held my face in my hands for several seconds, sucking in breath after breath and trying to keep my emotions in check, trying to keep the waterworks at bay.

It had only been maybe a year since my life with Wolf had started and it seemed like it was already nearing its end. I couldn't see any scenario where I got out of this. Where I got both of us out of this.

At least Wolf would stand a chance if they gave him enough time to recover.

Critter leaned over me, brushing my cheeks with his antennae. Creature made a sound kind of like scoffing.

"What small master do?" Critter asked.

I straightened up, forcing Critter to back up a bit, and stared out the window. "I have to go out there. I said I would. I will . . . I will have to fight."

The two in'qua watched me, then were hot on my heels as I made my way around and headed outside. They probably felt as lost as I did, wondering what was going to happen to them after this was all done. Maybe they'd get lucky and these assholes needed some servants. I hated the idea of them being in charge of Critter's well-being, but I wasn't sure I liked the idea of him or Creature being murdered in cold blood, either.

For the longest time, I stood outside the loading bay. I wasn't sure I could actually bring myself to walk out to my certain death, but I knew I didn't want to live in a world without Wolf, and at least this way I could make him proud by dying an honorable death suited for a warrior.

With some measure of dread, I donned my mask then lowered the door and walked down it. My heartbeat keeping time to the roar of blood in my ears—a fitting funeral dirge.

"Ah, and she walks with her head high," Titan's voice greeted me. My steps faltered and my breath hitched. "I can see why you keep her around, Mister Arbiter."

Behind him, forced to his knees and flanked by Lockjaw and Jackal—the latter now sporting a grid-pattern wound on all exposed flesh—was Wolf. Bound, bloodied, and defeated. A new rage bubbled inside me, tinting my vision red and blocking out everything else.

"_You son of a bitch!" _I screeched semi-coherently, charging with little regard for anything but sating my white-hot fury.

Titan chuckled. "Ah, so eager for the end."

He stepped back and _fucking Jackal _moved up to field my attack with a battle cry of his own. Our wrist blades met as he slashed at me and my arm twanged with the weight of his blow. I was forced to the defensive as he bore down hard and fast, treating his weapon more like a blunt bludgeon than a sharp blade.

I did what I could to parry and block. Some of my anger had abated with the attack as my mind focused on what was going on. I was mad at everything—mad that this had happened, mad that Wolf hadn't been in any shape to fend them off because of me, mad that they'd brought him out to watch me get beat to death in front of him.

Mad that I couldn't try harder, that I couldn't move faster, that I couldn't fight stronger. I was glad for the mask concealing my frustrated, frightened, and angry tears falling down my cheeks.

Jackal sneered. "You have some fight in you. I like that in my prey."

Growling, I tried to force my way onto the offensive, but he kicked me down with the opening I left. I couldn't believe it—I was even sloppier than normal, fueled by emotions instead of my careful training. Wolf must have been so disappointed.

Echoing my own thoughts, Titan spoke to Wolf loud enough for me to hear. "See, that is the thing with humans. You can train them till Cetanu comes for us all, but you cannot train the emotions out of them."

Fuming by this point, at my own ineptitude, mainly, I scrambled to stand and was greeted by a knee on my chest, my wrist with the blade pinned down leaving only my left hand free.

"You still have not shown me why he keeps you around, girl."

An inhuman wail sounded and then Critter slammed into Jackal from out of nowhere, lifting his weight off me and sending him sprawling several feet away. Critter stood over me, his limbs spread, sickle-like claws raised, and gossamer wings flared. Outside the confines of the ship, she stood at his full height of over ten feet and looked quite the sight.

"Critter, stop!" I pleaded, rolling up into a crouch. "We are outnumbered."

He ignored me and scuttled faster than I'd seen him move, catching Jackal further off guard and forcing him to raise his blades as a shield against the flurry of slashes being unleashed upon him.

Lockjaw snarled. "I did not agree to a third wheel!"

The other two seemed surprised and Lockjaw chittered away. "Is that an in'qua? What is it doing attacking? Kar-thur'ghas, this is cheating!"

Titan, however, just rumbled with amusement. "Calm down, Shum. It matters not what tricks she has up her sleeves. In fact, I welcome it. She will only delay the inevitable."

I was up by then, ready to take on one of the other two and try my best to free Wolf, at least, when he finally spoke up. The sound of his voice was enough to calm some of my anger and send a thrill of relief through my chest.

"Do not come any closer!" His voice was rough and weak, but I heard him and, out of instinct mostly, I stopped short. He looked behind me. "Creature, I command you to take her and run."

That was the last thing I wanted. I responded almost as quickly as he spoke and duck just as Creature came to snatch me up. "_I'm not leaving you again, Wolf. With these two, we can win! We can take them and we can—"_

"You cannot win a head-to-head fight," he insisted, pausing to catch his breath. My heart nearly shattered. "Go for now. Creature, do not stop running until you can go no longer."

Again, I dodged him and tried to move in to fight. Critter was still beating down Jackal with unrelenting blows from his claws, hissing and screeching in his insect way and I marveled at just how terrifying he could be when he really wanted to.

Creature was able to gather me up in his four arms while I was distracted but before he could abscond with me, Lockjaw moved to intercept. Wolf, summoning what strength he had, took Lockjaw's legs out by throwing his weight into him and knocking him flat on his stupid face.

Titan and Lockjaw brought Wolf back under control while Jackal tried to get the upper hand on Critter, and then my vision was obscured by the trees that swallowed us up. My mask barely picked up Titan's parting command to his lackeys; "Let her go. You cannot outrun those bugs in the woods. We will—"

There was a flash of light and Critter let out a shrill sound that made my heart skip a beat.

Then it was just the sound of Creature's fast skittering as he cleared every obstacle and maneuvered the uneven terrain as if it were flatlands. I came back to myself and struggled, wiggling and kicking with all my might, but it just made Creature hold me tighter as he fled through the forest at a breakneck pace.

"Let me go! Take me back right now," I demanded, pounding a fist against his exoskeleton. "We can do it, we can fight them and—"

Creature cut me off. "Master gave order. Me follow."

Grinding my teeth together, I shot back, "Then I _order _you to take me back!"

"No. Small master below Master."

My eyes widened. "Wolf told you—I—No! Wolf said we were equals. He told you, so you have to follow my order! Take me back right now."

He remained silent. Again my anger peaked.

"_You son of a bitch! I know you just don't like me, but this is beyond assholery! Take me back and help me free Wolf and save Critter right this second or I'll—"_

Everything was falling on deaf ears. I'd devolved into shouting English insults at him and I knew perfectly well he couldn't understand even a little bit of it, if any at all. I kept going, too—just because it made me feel better. Spewing such venom at someone who could take it was cathartic, and I spat it at him until I was out of breath and exhausted, hanging limp in his unrelenting grip as he continued to run—and run—and run.

**Author's Note:**

> Check out my creator page at www.patreon.com/kaylanhodge  
Follow me on Twitter at imagine_kayla


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